Why you should take a wilderness first aid course

I spent a recent weekend dressed up in fake blood, pretending I'd been hit by lightning.

It was part of a two-day Wilderness First Aid course taught by the Wilderness Medicine Training Center at Duthie park outside of Issaquah. The class was to certify WTA hike leaders and trail crew leaders for first aid in the field. It was extremely informative and I would highly recommend that if you hike, you consider taking a WFA course.

Our instructors, Paul and Joel, offered a great combination of lectures, demonstrations and in-the-field simulations. Paul Nicolazzo is the author of a pocket handbook of first aid, and founder of WMTC, which is based in Mazama.. Paul really knows his stuff. He's worked on search and rescue missions, is a trained wilderness EMT and knows the practical ins-and-outs of wilderness medicine.

One thing to emphasize: a standard first aid course, while valuable for urban and suburban situations, is pretty much useless for hiking. Wilderness first aid teaches you what to do when you're out of reach of ambulances and paramedics. You'll cover the basics of assessing a victim, taking life-saving measures, protecting the spine from critical damage, and setting priorities for evacuation. The class demonstrated how little I actually knew about first aid in the wilderness. And while I don't know everything now, I have a solid foundation of skills to continue building on. For those wanting more skills, you can take a Wilderness First Responder course, a 9-day school for expedition leaders.

For most of us, however, a two- or three-day WFA course is sufficient. The in-field exercises, in which we simulated injuries, were incredibly helpful. It's one thing to read about stabilizing a spine or applying direct pressure to a wound--and quite another to actually practice doing it with a real person decorated with stage blood and "injuries."

These classes can help prepare you for the rare chance you encounter an emergency on a day hike or an overnight trip. And though the odds are you'll never have to use these skills, they can make a huge difference if you do encounter an emergency.

As much as we focus on being prepared with the ten essentials before heading out on a hike, having adequate knowledge and training is equally important. Taking wilderness first aid could help save your life, or the life of a friend or loved one. For information on wilderness first aid courses, check out the following links:

Wilderness Medicine Training Center (schedule of classes is here)
Mountaineers Mountaineering Oriented First Aid (MOFA)
Washington Alpine Club MOFA (offered in the fall only)
National Outdoor Leadership School WFA (search schedule here for classes in WA).

Photo: Paul Nicolazzo instructs WTA staff and crew leaders in wilderness first aid. Photo by Lauren Braden.