A helping hand in wilderness
US-based instructor trains trekking guides on how to help clients in distress in remote areas
Tribune News Service
www.garhwalpost.com Sun. June 27th pg.10
www.tribuneindia.com Mon. June 28th pg. 4
Dehradun, June 27
Having completed 72 hours of classroom and practical training, seven trekking guides from the Mountain Shepherds Initiative (MSI) were certified as Wilderness First Responders (WFRs) by a US-based instructor Ted Morrison at Joshimath in Chamoli district. This is the first course of its kind to be completed in the Garhwal region and represents a unique opportunity for both course participants and the local communities. Morrison works with the Aerie Back Country Medicine company at Montana in the US.
The course was held from June 15 to 25 in the usually quiet hills surrounding Auli and the meadows of Gaurson. It was designed to provide a more realistic learning experience and its effectiveness in teaching medical skills is unparalleled.
Nandu Martolia, senior guide and shareholder of the MSI, described the WFR course as “a great course that taught him to provide medical care for his clients in remote areas”. Martolia also said: “The most important thing I learnt was taking good care for all clients by asking good and relevant questions, administering first aid with proper medications and how to make proper splints from improvised materials such as sticks, trekking poles and sleeping pads”.
The course is the best-possible medical training and is the standard for mountain guides and instructors in the US and around the world. It consists of hands-on experience on how to attend to those affected with a variety of serious injuries and trauma, as well as medical conditions like diabetes and acute mountain sickness. The course focuses on a long-term care for back country patients because often in back country settings, such as those encountered while trekking, a hospital might be days away. The MSI guides spent their days in class learning the skills of a caregiver and their nights studying their course books.
The US company is a leader in providing all types of back country medical training worldwide and prides itself on their work with local guides in Africa, Latin America, and now in India. The guides from the MSI, with its offices based in Dehradun and Lata village, is a community-owned tourism cooperative that has been operating since 2006. Its mission is to simultaneously provide a sustainable livelihood for the local youth and their communities and give tourists a safe and high quality trekking and family mountain adventure experience. The course highlights the budding relationship between the two companies.
After completing their 72 hours of classroom and practical training, each participant passed the formal examination. Only then the seven participants were certified as Wilderness First Responders. The MSI guides are now prepared not only to treat a myriad of medical problems but also manage risk in order to keep their clients healthy. This course was the first step in the MSI plan to open an Adventure Sports and Sustainable Livelihood Institute in Uttarakhand. In the future, the MSI and Aerie hope to train some guides to hold the WFR course and also adapt to the training to a larger disaster management plan that would have WFRs acting as first responders in the case of earthquakes or landslides in mountainous areas.
Morrison said: “I am excited to have worked with such an outstanding group of guides from such an amazing area of the world!
Aerie provides precisely the training that mountain shepherds need to launch them as a competitive international trekking service. I look forward to working with these talented guides in the future, as the success of the programme has ensured the establishment of a long-term international relationship between Aerie and the MSI”.
Morrison is a lead instructor for Aerie Back Country Medicine. He is a licensed Wilderness Emergency Medical Technician (WEMT) and a Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) instructor. He is also certified in avalanche safety and awareness. He has been specialising in teaching wilderness and emergency medicine since 2006. Morrison also works as a rock climbing and mountaineering lead instructor and course director for the Outward Bound School in Colorado, US. He combines all of these experiences and certifications to teach back country medicine and risk management to outdoor professionals. He greatly enjoys watching his students become confident.
In all, the first Aerie/MSI WFR course was a great success. The guides from the MSI are now certified in wilderness medicine and can give excellent care to their clients and if needed in an emergency, can help their villages.
The idea for having the MSI guides get the WFR certification came from the Nature-Link Institute (NLI), an NGO based in Montana, US, that conducts trekking and cultural tours for students of the University of Montana. The NLI and the MSI have a longstanding relationship based on mutual goals. Eric Legvold, Director of the NLI, noticed the need to have the MSI guides trained in back country medicine and proceeded to develop the linkages between Aerie and the MSI. Aerie waived a portion of the course costs and the MSI used their own profits to pay for organising the WFR course in the Indian Himalayas.
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