Cool wind tugs at your cheek, your gaze seizes the horizon where trees touch the skyline, and the adrenaline rush invokes a smile - you've just completed your first mountaineering climb. It's hard to believe something so simple can help heal a wounded warrior.

But it's working for one participant of the Warrior Transition Battalion at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. Capt. Daniel Shoemaker, who is currently receiving treatment for Stage III cancer, while also suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury from a close encounter with a suicide bomber while deployed in 2010, is finding therapy at high elevation.

Shoemaker is a member of the Hound Summit Team - a nonprofit mountaineering organization made up of active-duty and veteran Servicemembers suffering from the various effects of war, and who climb weekly as a form of recreational therapy to help overcome the challenges associated with their injuries.

"Nothing really makes you closer than going through combat together," said JBLM Maj. Joshua Brandon, a HST member and veteran suffering with PTSD, "but mountaineering is a close second. There's a sense of accomplishment - of achieving something hard with fellow Soldiers that creates a natural high. Conquering the elements involves teamwork and you discover things about yourself that you didn't think possible. Mountaineering is a good form of self-medicating."

HST became official last year, and has now partnered with the Wounded Warrior Project (WWP). It will be hosting a free summer Hiking Series for WWP Soldiers, their spouses, and interested parties. There are 12 core members, and 20 to 25 WWP and another 25 alumni that intend to climb with HST. Membership is free and equipment is provided by the American Alpine Club and by JBLM's Morale Welfare & Recreation. All branches of the Armed Forces are welcomed.

"We aren't professional guides," said Brandon, a Silver and Bronze Star recipient after three deployments. "We're the same guys to your left and right during combat that are climbing together stateside. The way you plan for combat is the same for mountaineering, and its cool to do it with guys who've been there. We're all wounded and we have that level of understanding - you don't have to explain yourself."

On his first climb, Brandon was on medication for PTSD. However, "mountaineering helped me put things in perspective and I felt empowered," he said. He found a network of guys and a support system to help him through the rough days.

Mountaineers from across the U.S. have traveled to climb with HST, and the nonprofit is seeking funding and grants with the goal to "one day provide all-expense paid trips for wounded Soldiers nationwide to visit HST," said Brandon. It would also like to have certified climbers and expand nationally.

For more information, visit www.houndsummitteam.org or email info@houndsummitteam.org.