(Reuters) - U.S. Army Special Forces troops were airlifted on Friday from a mountain peak inside Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park after two members of the team suffered altitude sickness during a training exercise, a military spokesman said.
The team was climbing Longs Peak on Thursday when the soldiers became ill and the group was forced to camp overnight while on its way to the summit, Army Special Forces spokesman Lt. Col. Sean Ryan said in a telephone interview.
It had originally been planned as a one-day climb, he said.
Longs Peak has an altitude of 14,259 feet (4,346 meters), according to a National Park Service website.
The climbing exercise approximates conditions members of the military experience in Afghanistan, Ryan said.
By Friday afternoon, National Park Service rangers had airlifted by helicopter some members of the group. All are based at Fort Carson near Colorado Springs, Ryan said.
The mission was still underway, as separate flights were needed to take the members in turn, he said.
"They were never in any danger," Ryan said, adding that the two team members who became ill were being evaluated.
National Park Service spokesperson Kyle Patterson in an email confirmed that the agency was flying members of the military off Longs Peak and that the climbers had contacted park officials on Thursday night to say they were on Kiener's Route and needed assistance.
(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles, additional reporting by Keith Coffman in Denver; Editing by Chris Reese, Toni Reinhold)