Sugar Bears North

 

 

          High Altitude Rescue Team (HART)

 

 

          B Company - "Sugar Bears North" unit patch.
242 ASHC / B Company - "Sugar Bears North" D model fielding poster.
B Company - "Sugar Bears North" High Altitude Rescue Team (HART) patch.

 

 

             Members of Bravo Company - "Sugar Bears North", 4th Battalion, 123rd Aviation Regiment spent three weeks in April 2002 conducting high altitude training in anticipation of the 2002 climbing season on Mount McKinley, Alaska. To native Alaskans, Mount McKinley is known as Denali. The Sugar Bears deployed to Talkeetna, Alaska and utilized the small airfield there as a staging base for their annual training. Talkeetna is approximately 200 miles south-southwest of Fort Wainwright, Alaska, but only about 50 miles from the mountain training sites.

 

 

             The April 2002 photograph below is a view of Denali taken from CH-47D Chinook 89-00167, about 20 miles north of Talkeetna.

 

 

         
Photograph of Denali, taken from CH-47D 89-00167, piloted by CW4 Mark S. Morgan and CW4 Jeff Wagner, April 2002.

 

 

             Upon closer inspection of the mountain, one can observe the "wave" cloud coming off the top and heading south. This wave cloud resembles the waves on an ocean beach and indicates to the cautious mountain pilot that winds on the mountain are extremely fierce and turbulent today. A prudent aviator would avoid the mountain until the winds die down.

 

 

         
Photograph of Denali, taken from CH-47D 89-00167, piloted by CW4 Mark S. Morgan and CW4 Jeff Wagner, April 2002.

 

 

         
Newspaper article about the 2002 climbing season rescue training.

 

 

         
Newspaper article about the 2002 climbing season rescue training.

 

 

         
Newspaper article about the 2002 climbing season rescue training.

 

 

         
Newspaper article about the 2002 climbing season rescue training.

 

 

         
Newspaper article about the 2002 climbing season rescue training.

 

 

          Webmasters Note: Kim Barney is actually a CW3, not a SGT.

 

 

          The CH-47 - 40 years old and still circling the world.

         

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