Hello, my name is Teddy and I am a Wilderness First Responder

It's been one year and five months since I used my emergency training and it wasn't while rock climbing

As a rock climbing guide, it’s my job to be not only your coach, mentor, and cheerleader when things are going well but also your caretaker if things go wrong.

That’s because, let’s not forget, rock climbing is a dangerous sport. Accidents happen, and when they do, they can lead to injury. In some cases, rock climbing accidents can lead to fatality.

Fortunately, I’ve only had to deal with the former and not the latter.

*knocks on wood*

Double-fortunately, the client injuries I’ve dealt with have been pretty minor and only required simple trailside first aid.

However, I am not so naive to think that I’ll never have to deal with a more serious climbing-related injury or death throughout my career, especially because accidents happen frequently at the Gunks. In 2022, Gunks Rangers responded to 46 accidents, 19 of which required first aid.

Last season, on a recreational climbing day with Whitney, we participated in a large group litter carry to evacuate a climber who took a ground fall.

As a group of ten or 15 climbers, we evacuated the injured climber from the cliff base down to the carriage road, where they could be transported by vehicle to a waiting ambulance at the trailhead.

(The litter carry we performed looked something like this.)

Due to the inherent risks involved in rock climbing, climbing guides nowadays are specifically trained to respond to accidents that may occur. In the past, it was not always like that. However, the industry has professionalized a lot over the years, and now it’s an American Mountian Guide Association (AMGA) requirement.

A quick note of caution: if you’re climbing with a guide now and wondering if they’re trained in first aid or know that they aren’t, I’d recommend moving on to someone who has adequate training.

Wilderness First Responder Training

Nowadays, most climbing guides like myself are wilderness first responders (WFR). In other words, they are trained in wilderness first aid. Some guides are wilderness emergency medicine technicians or EMTs, which have higher levels of training.

The idea behind WFR training is to be able to respond to injury and sickness in a wilderness or backcountry setting where resources might be limited and where access to more definitive care may be hours or days away.

Wilderness first aid varies on a spectrum from providing simple wound cleaning and packaging to more advanced skills like improvised splints for a leg injury and facilitating an evacuation.

WFR training also includes adult, child, and toddler CPR and AED training, along with training for the administration of life-saving drugs such as epinephrine for anaphylactic allergy responses and Naxalone or Narcan for opioid overdose.

WFR Training is Something I Want to Have, but I Never Want to Use it

As I mentioned above, I have yet to deploy my WFR training for anything very serious while guiding or while out recreating in a backcountry setting with my friends. However, I have deployed my training, specifically my CPR and AED training, in a front-country setting.

It’s been about a year and a half since I participated in a three-person rescue of an elderly man experiencing cardiac arrest on an airplane right before takeoff.

As one of three rescuers, I helped lift the patient from their seat and lay them down in the cramped walkway of the plane.

The lead rescuer (a nurse practitioner) monitored vital signs, the second rescuer (a doctor in residency) performed CPR, and I administered the AED.

Rapidly removing the man’s button-down t-shirt to expose his chest and watching him lurch from the electric shocks is something I may never forget.

As a team, we performed three rounds of CPR and AED defibrillation as we waited for EMTs to arrive and evacuate the man to an ambulance.

Before the EMTs transported the man away, we managed to bring him back. The nurse practitioner got a pulse and respiratory rate, albeit weak. However, I am unsure if the man continued to survive in the ambulance and hospital.

My Training is Ongoing, and I Try to Always Be Prepared

The accident on the airplane instilled an even greater personal desire to continually train my first aid and other life-saving skills (even more so than the injuries I’ve responded to while climbing).

I recertify my WFR training every three years. Since my first WFR certification with the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), I’ve recertified twice, once with NOLS and most recently with Wilderness Medical Associates (WMA).

I really enjoy WFR training because it helps me resharpen my skills. As an added bonus, it allows me to interact with passionate people involved in all kinds of guiding and other forms of awesome outdoor education.

I am proud to invest in WFR training (it’s not cheap) because it gives me the confidence to provide care for my clients when necessary.

I always carry a well-built first aid kit in my backpack when I am climbing(with more supplies in the car) and always consider what an emergency evacuation might look like based on the location.

Although the accident was traumatizing (I’ve spent the better part of the subsequent year in monthly therapy sessions, unpacking how the accident made me feel), it motivated me to continue prioritizing the emergency response side of my career.

It solidified that I should always be ready to respond to an emergency (in a calm, cool, and collected kind of way and not in an overly anxious emergencies are lurking around every corner kind of way).

The irony is, despite being trained to respond to medical emergencies, I must admit, in a crisis moment, responding is the last thing I want to be doing.

I’ve learned that in the milliseconds before deciding to help, there is a seductive, selfish desire to put your head down and not look or walk in the other direction.

Nonetheless, I also learned that I am innately drawn to helping. The accident on the airplane was a testament to my training and my willingness to deploy it in a time of crisis. For that, I am proud.