Translation of brigade in Spanish

In the end we went up to the tower. We have never climbed so steep stairs ever before and once up we were really afraid to go down. There were no safety installation at this tower.
I am learning Spanish in university but I also have to improve it for private reasons. Do you have any suggestions. It is giving me a hard time lately as it is difficult. I need to be very patient.
We first took a regular bus to the border, which was basically just an empty building. There we switched to Jeeps, as the terrain was rocky. In our group there were 4 American girls and us.