Gaining a wilderness medicine certification is an asset to anyone’s resume. For many jobs a Wilderness First Aid (WFA) or Wilderness First Responder (WFR) certification is a requirement. In other cases, a certification isn’t required but opens up additional doors of opportunity for future work. Below is a reference of how your certification can help you in a wilderness medicine job.
Adventuring in the outdoors requires almost constant risk management skills, and I’ve spent decades creating systems and structures to do so. Today I want to talk about these systems and how I use them in the mountains.
I was recently on a trip to Colorado where I went to climb a 14’er by myself. On my way down, a horrified hiker appeared, commenting that I shouldn’t have hiked in the dark, by myself, when there are mountain lions. It caught me off guard; I was being questioned about my risk management. And, of course, when you have weird interactions with people, you always think of all the right things to say later.
This accident has been adapted from Accidents in North American Climbing 2021. The accident was real. The discussion of actions is a hypothetical exercise to review wilderness medicine practices and critical thinking in emergencies.
Throughout this case study, I’ll indicate the scene and what happen in italics. Questions for the reader to consider before moving on are underlined. Everything else will be a discussion of wilderness medicine practices.
In this incident, there are two people headed out to explore potential boulders to climb. It is March in the Pacific Northwest, so we can envision a lush, wooded area, with a fair bit of weather swings. This was during the pandemic, and thus they were trying to be socially responsible by avoiding crowded areas. In their exploration they used creek beds and erosion pathways to hike off trail. The incident took place on their descent which was returning the same way they had hiked earlier.
Leader Fall on rock
This accident has been adapted from Accidents in North American Climbing 2021.[i] The accident was real. The discussion of actions is a hypothetical exercise to review wilderness medicine practices and critical thinking in emergencies.
Throughout this case study, I’ll indicate the scene and what happen in italics. Questions for the reader to consider before moving on are underlined. Everything else is discussion of wilderness medicine practices.