Why Were Emergency Crews Climbing Outside an Idaho St. Luke’s Hospital

A few days ago there was a strange sight outside a hospital in Southern Idaho, people were seen using ropes to climb up and down the exterior walls of the medical building.

This reportedly happened at the St. Luke’s hospital in the Magic Valley in late August. Check out the pictures below and learn about what was happening.

Why Were These People Rappelling the Outside Walls of an Idaho Hospital

We were alerted to the event by a social media post from the St. Luke’s Health System Facebook page. They explained why and who the people were that were climbing the outside walls of the hospital.

The group was a crew from the Magic Valley Paramedics Special Operations Rescue Team (SORT) and they were at the hospital for a training exercise.

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Normally the SORT members practice on canyon walls, since they primarily respond to rescue and medical care situations in hard to reach places, like canyon walls and mountain terrain. They chose to practice on a man-made wall in preparation for an upcoming rope-rescue competition this fall.

SORT was practicing on the outside of the patient tower in Twin Falls, I wonder if any patients actually saw the action through their windows.