Know Wilderness First Aid for These 12 Injuries
Muffy Ritz thought nothing of it when she gashed her leg by scraping a log as she made her way down a trail in the Sawtooth Mountains.
But clinicians at the Stanley Clinic had grim news for the Ketchum woman. Get to St. Luke’s in Ketchum fast, they told her. Hopefully, they can save your leg.
Even what appear to be innocuous injuries can turn life-threatening in the backcountry. Ritz said her wound may have been exacerbated by bacteria breeding in the horse manure strung out on the trail.
The outcome is much better for those who venture into the backcountry on foot, bike, skis or snowmobile if they know how to take care of the little things that arise. That’s part of the reason the Ski & Mountain Trauma Conference hosted by Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center came into being.
Dr. Richard Moore started the conference 11 years ago to teach first responders the current best backcountry techniques after a Ketchum woman careened off the I-80 cat track on Sun Valley’s Bald Mountain, breaking her neck.
The conference now attracts more than 550 ski patrol, sheriff’s deputies, firefighters, National Guard medics and backcountry paramedics from throughout the West, including Alaska.
Among those attending this year’s conference in November was Stephen Wells, a responder in West Cassia. He spent two weeks in the hospital after a Western rattlesnake bite following a fishing outing.
“The pain was incredibly intense — like a horrible burn,” he said. “My arm ballooned to twice its size.”
Contrary to popular belief, Idaho actually has three poisonous snakes. But the ground snake and night snake are nocturnal and scarcely encountered, said Stephen Blados, a division chief with Canyon County Paramedics.
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