Wilderness Medicine

The Setting You are on the trip of a lifetime hiking the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal with one of your best friends. This trip has been in the works for over a year. You’ve spent countless hours training, reviewing maps, and daydreaming about being in the mountains. You can’t believe you’re finally here!  You flew…

A member of your rafting party loses a tooth partway through a 4-day trip. How do you respond?

A fall partway through a sea kayak trip deep in the wilderness poses unique issues. How do you apply your wilderness medicine skills to this incident?

In the Appalachian Mountains of New York you friend notices that they have an engorged tick on their leg. How would you apply your wilderness medicine skills in this scenario?

Ouch! Your friend gets stung by a jellyfish while you're out surfing. How do you respond?

While climbing in Greece with a friend, you witness another climber takes a fall. She swings hard, feet first, into the wall. The rope stops her, but she is clutching her ankle and screaming. what do you and your friend, a WFR and a WEMT respectively, do?

You witness someone fall from a horse; they are unresponsive. How do you use your Wilderness Medicine skills in this situation?

After a strenuous hike, you and your team find a tent just off the trail at 11,300 ft. You call out, “Hello, is anyone in the tent? This is search and rescue. We have a report of someone who needs assistance?” See what happens next in this case study.

Test your wilderness medicine skills to see how you would respond to this first-aid scenario.

Your hiking partner slips on a snowy slope and slides head-first into a tree. What do you do next?

On a paddling trip in Big Bend National Park, a participant starts having leg spasms. What do you do?

Learn how to prevent altitude sickness with NOLS wilderness medicine courses. Take a proactive approach to your next mountain adventure.

A student gets a hot water burn deep in the backcountry. What do you do?

Take a proactive approach to your next adventure. Learn how to prevent hypothermia, manage cold stress, and be prepared for cold illnesses in the wilderness.

See what you would do to respond to and treat a possible snakebite.

A climber collapses at the crag. What do you do next?

Understand the 'Wilderness First Aid vs Wilderness First Responder' debate to choose the best course for your outdoor medical training needs.

What would you do to help a patient with hypothermia while winter camping?

A skier hits a terrain feature and goes flying. They land hard and don't immediately reply when you ask if they are ok. How do you respond?

Test your wilderness medicine skills with this case study!

Test your wilderness medicine skills with this case study! You are guiding a 7-day wilderness trip. One of your participants, Stan, is an insulin-dependent diabetic. At 5am, Stan's tentmate wakes you up saying, 'Stan is really sick.'

Two days into a picture-perfect autumn backpacking trip in the Wind River Mountains, your companion slips and falls on rocky terrain. His chief complaint: pain in his swollen and tender knee. You’re at mile 5 of a planned 20-mile loop. What do you do?

To reduce the strain on local health care facilities during a global crisis, you can step up and use your first aid training to treat some injuries at home.

Test your knowledge with this case study about a patient with an ankle injury on a backcountry hunt.