IRON HORSE STATE PARK, Wash. - Spc. Andre Williams crouched on the steep slope. The Fort Lewis medic planted his left boot firmly into the dirt to ensure he wouldn't slide away.

He pulled the thick nylon rope wrapped around the tree next to him to make sure it was secure. It anchored another soldier near the edge of a 60-foot cliff.

When he received the signal from a trainer, Williams started feeding a second rope through his gloves. Working with other medics guiding other ropes, the soldier at the end of the line disappeared off the rock face and landed softly on the ground below.

"Just that simple," the 24-year-old North Carolina native said with a laugh Tuesday.

An hour later, Williams would be back atop the cliff to help lower a basket containing a stretcher.

He was one of 15 medics from Madigan Army Medical Center participating Tuesday in high-angle, high-altitude training in the Cascade Mountains, near North Bend.

Williams isn't scheduled to deploy overseas anytime soon. But the training objective was obvious: The medics were learning how to work effectively in the mountains of Afghanistan.

Sixty soldiers, all enlisted with a rank of staff sergeant or below, will take part in the training this week. Instructors from Remote Medical International, a Seattle company, lead the wilderness survival courses that teach basics such as tying solid knots, properly anchoring ropes and lowering people and litters down steep slopes.

"They get downrange to Afghanistan, and things are different there," said Matthew Griffin, of Remote Medical International. He deployed three times as an officer in Fort Lewis' 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment.

The soldiers are assigned to various roles in the ophthalmology department, but they are also trained as combat medics.

Many will likely serve at some point with a unit deploying to Afghanistan or Iraq.

Locally, about 4,000 Fort Lewis infantry troops with the 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division are in the first weeks of a yearlong deployment to Afghanistan's volatile Kandahar and Zabul provinces.