Courses with PCS
Military Training
Training Built for the Operational Environment
When your mission takes you into technical mountain terrain, the margin for error disappears. Pisgah Climbing School provides mountain training programs for military special operations units and law enforcement teams that demand the same standard of precision and professionalism they bring to every mission.
Our programs are built around your unit's specific learning objectives — not a recreational curriculum adapted for professional use. Every element is designed for the operational environment: weighted loads, tactical considerations, night operations, and casualty management integrated throughout.
Karsten Delap, IFMGA Mountain Guide and SPRAT Level 3 certified rope access technician, leads all military programs. He consults with the 10th Special Forces Group Special Operations Mountain Warfare Training Center (SOMWTC) program — bringing civilian mountain guiding expertise directly into one of the most demanding military mountain training pipelines in the U.S. Army. Our team includes guides with active military and special operations backgrounds, and we integrate Dr. Andrew Beeghly — Emergency Physician, Medical Director for Mountain Area Medical Airlift (MAMA), retired U.S. Army LTC, former Dive Medical Officer and Flight Surgeon for 5th Special Forces Group, and UIAA Diploma in Mountain Medicine holder — for programs requiring medical and tactical integration.
Our guides' active duty military experience is unmatched, as are our ties to the military mountaineering community.
We regularly train with instructors from the Special Operations Mountaineering Course in Fort Carson, and interface regularly with Special Operations Forces throughout the Department of Defense — keeping us up-to-date with current trends and best practices.
Military training requires longer hours, overnights, and lower instructor-to-student ratios than typical guided outings.
Our military training rate of $300 per student per day for training in western North Carolina takes this into account. Email kevin@pisgahclimbingschool.com for more information.
What We Train
Programs are fully customized and can cover any combination of the following, scaled to your team's existing capability:
Technical mountain movement — efficient movement over Class 3–5 terrain, route finding, and small unit management in complex vertical environments
Rope systems and anchor building — from basic rigging to advanced multi-pitch and high-angle systems
CASEVAC in technical terrain — patient packaging, hauling systems, high-lines, and litter evacuation over vertical and near-vertical ground
Night operations — terrain navigation and rope work using NODs (night vision devices)
Lead climbing and multi-pitch movement — ascending and descending sustained trad routes in full mission loadout
Rescue in confined spaces — rope access techniques applied to non-standard environments
Rope Bridge systems — passing casualties and personnel across rivers and gaps in austere conditions
