U.S. Army Special Forces has a multitude of missions that require many types of skills and capabilities. One of these capabilities is being able to infiltrate and conduct operations and missions in environmentally challenging conditions – such as in cold weather or mountainous terrain. Some Special Forces detachments are designated mountain teams and participate in Special Forces mountain training to develop their environmental skills.

The Special Forces (SF) groups are assigned to regional areas of the world. Some of these areas have high elevations and mountainous terrain – South America, Central and South Asia, Europe, etc. In order to have the ability to operate in this difficult terrain the SF groups will designate some of the Special Forces Operational Detachment Alphas (12-man teams) as Mountain Teams. [1] In addition to everything else an SF mountain team needs to be able to do to conduct its mission it must also be able to operate in mountainous terrain.

This mission requires the team to have some specialized equipment and training. Mountain kits consisting of climbing gear and other supporting types of equipment are issued to each team. The teams will attend various mountain climbing schools as well as conduct their own internal sustainment training [2] at group or detachment level. The Special Forces mountain training provides skills on how to operate in mountainous terrain, at high altitudes, and in cold weather.