Quote Originally Posted by jcustis View Post
I'm curious as to why you'd say SF team, as opposed to regular line formation troops.
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It's not as though these rat lines run across heights the likes of K2. I admit that I am not familiar with mountain troop training standards, but are we actually talking about mountains, or just a multitude of ridgelines and hills under a couple thousand feet?
and some -- not all -- the rat lines are almost K2 like.

The Army has a Division called the 10th Mountain Division. Its first Regiment was the 87th Mountain Infantry, formed at Ft Lewis WA and trained in the Cascades. They later went to Camp Hale Colorado and were the basis for the formation of the 10th Mountain Division. Camp Hale stayed the home of the Mountain Warfare School until 1965 when it was deactivated because the short sighted Army and the Congress that pays for it couldn't see past Viet Nam.

When the 10th Mtn was reactivated instead of going to Camp Hale where there are real mountains, better even than Pickle Meadows, they got sent to upstate NY for political reasons. Now they get to train in the hills -- not mountains -- hills around Plattsburgh. Or they can go to Mountain training at the ArNG Mountina School in Vermont -- more hills...

The 10th SF is located at Fort Carson, CO, not far from where Hale used to be -- and they train in the Rockies. So do the other Groups; the GPF not so much, it's a dollar thing. the 12 Man A team or even several of 'em don't cost as much as a 700 plus bod Inf Bn......

Still your point is well taken -- and Infantry Bn can learn all the Mountain stuff they need in 90 days to be reasonably proficient -- place, there are supposed to be Ranger School graduates in most infantry units and the get a little 'mountain' training. It isn't rocket science...