Ten soldiers forced to spend the night on Longs Peak in Colorado were being rescued Friday with helicopters, Rocky Mountain National Park reported.
The soldiers are part of the Army’s 10th Special Forces Group out of Fort Carson, a U.S. military official said.
The park staff learned Thursday night that soldiers on Kiener’s Route on the 14,259-foot peak requested assistance, officials said in a news release. The group had been involved in a climbing exercise.
“A few members reported having some degree of distress and were having difficulty continuing up the route,” the release said. “The group was not planning to over-night in the area. The group continues to self-rescue by assisting each other to climb to the summit of Longs Peak.”
Some of the soldiers got altitude sickness, the U.S. military official said. The soldiers made it to the top for helicopter rescue, the official said.
Forty-three park personnel were involved in the rescue, the news release said.
The flat-topped Longs Peak is the tallest mountain in the park.