SANTA CRUZ — On the UC Santa Cruz campus, 30 students are pretending to break and reset bones.
These students are trained wilderness first responders. After completing an intensive 10-day WFR course two years ago, they are back to brush up on their skills.
Wilderness first responders, or WFR’s, are people who are trained to respond to emergency situations in remote, wilderness environments. From broken bones to burns, WFR’s can conduct physical exams, assess a patient’s vital signs, provide emergency treatment and make crucial decisions regarding patient evacuations. Unlike wilderness emergency medical technicians, or WMET’s, WFR’s cannot perform more conventional medical care treatments, such as administering oxygen.
Perhaps most important, WFR’s are taught how to both respect nature and remain calm, confident and composed when things don’t go according to plan.
“Taking a WFR class is beneficial for anybody,” said Daniel DeKay, a long-time educator in wilderness emergency medicine who was teaching the course alongside National Outdoor Leadership School instructor Mattie Guelinas. “You are then more calm and skilled when there is an emergency in the office, the playground, or the backcountry.”
UC Santa Cruz has been hosting WFR classes since 1993, but the concept of wilderness medicine has been around long before then.
During World War II, the U.S. Army identified a strong need for a group of elite soldiers to fight in the high-altitude mountains of Italy. To resolve this issue, they built the 10th Mountain Division, a military division filled with expert skiers who could navigate snowy terrain with maximal strength and agility. The 10th Mountain Division troops were among the first soldiers to carry outdoor gear into combat, including synthetic tents, skis, high-altitude stoves and sleeping bags, forever changing the outdoor industry.
In 1943, two years after the division was founded, renowned American alpinist Paul Petzoldt joined their ranks, bringing along two decades of mountaineering techniques, leadership and survival skills.
After the war in 1965, Pertzoldt went on to found the National Outdoor Leadership School, commonly referred to as NOLS. In the small town of Lander, Wyoming, NOLS grew into what is now regarded as one of the primer wilderness schools.
Today, NOLS’ wilderness medicine curriculums are used around the world to teach outdoor leaders and enthusiasts how to properly manage risks and keep both themselves and their travel companions safe.
The WFR class at UC Santa Cruz involved intensive lessons on issues such as frostbites, wounds and strokes, along with hands-on scenarios where students acted out emergency situations.
In one such scenario, two students pretended to be sailors whose boat had capsized during a storm on a remote island. They had been washed up onto a beach, and one of the sailors was unconscious with severe hypothermia.
This scene was inspired by a real-life experience that DeKay had with his friend in British Columbia. They came across a man who had fallen 60 feet down a cliffside onto a beach with the tide was coming in. With the help of two other hikers, DeKay and his friend carried the patient through waist-deep water to a safer location. The patient was then picked up by a helicopter and flown to a hospital for treatment.
“It was a bit of an epic experience, and it was fun,” said DeKay. “A great challenge.”
“Fun” is not the word most people would use to explain this situation. But WFR courses tend to attract people who enjoy a thrill.
As Special Programs Manager for NOLS Wilderness Medicine, Gates Richards, says, “The people who chose to take a WFR are those who are already predisposed to stepping up and acting in an emergency.”
And the students at the UC Santa Cruz WFR class were no exception.
Kiana Nakamura, a registered nurse who has been a WFR since 2012, believes that having this certification gives her a valuable perspective on emergency medicine.
“It teaches such a different perspective on the outdoors,” said Nakamura. “There is situational awareness and how to prepare yourself to prevent anything from even happening, because most accidents are those that you didn’t even think to plan for.”
Nakamura has also noticed a change in the number of women taking WFR courses and pursuing a career in wilderness leadership.
“When I was a student as an outdoor guide, we had a pretty decent number of women, but they often dropped out very early on,” she said. “When you have more women in leadership positions, then you have more women students sticking with it.”
The class at UC Santa Cruz is a perfect example of this shift, with 16 female and 14 male students.
Danielle Lewis, the recreation program supervisor at UC Santa Cruz who manages the WFR courses, is excited to see WFR certifications become more common in outdoor recreation.
“I see the impact this has on the community,” said Lewis. “It inspires me to talk to the participants and see why they are getting this training.”
This growing passion in wilderness medicine extends far beyond the students, Lewis believes. WFR’s can help bring a heightened awareness of the outdoors to their friends, families and communities.
So, a WFR certification stands for a lot more than knowing how to reset bones.
“When people have an appreciation for the outdoors, they are more likely to treat the outdoors with respect,” said DeKay. “One’s respect for the outdoors translates into one’s respect for the world around them no matter where they are.”
