12/09/2025
Some fun shots from the recent WFA/WFR-R.
Our big objectives for this course were:
1) Get everyone UP TO DATE. This meant diving into best practices surrounding Spine Motion Restriction (SRM), bleeding control (yep... probably don't improvise that TQ), and many other common misconceptions around wilderness medicine topics.
2) Lots of scenarios and hands on practice. This might be these students only chance to get hands on in their 2 year recertification cycle.
3) Clarify the Patient Assessment System. Depending on which Alphabet soup you train with (NOLS, SOLO, DMM, WMA, SRI, etc...) you may have learned ABCDE, CABS, Systems Approach, or in some cases, none at all. Our PAS (an adaptation of MARCH) is simple, evidence-based, and most importantly - life saving.
We were lucky to have 3 instructors for this 19 person group, including a living legend: Michael Novak. Michael has been a PA for 24 years in rural Northern CA. While serving as the main provider for THE medical clinic in his area, he's also a Trinity Alps SAR team member/medical consultant. We are STOKED to bring this caliber of knowledge and background into many future MTN courses.
