WFR Training with Wilderness Adventures

By Tom Holland June 9, 2016

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With Wilderness Adventures trips gearing up to go out in a few weeks all over the world, we are aware that there are inherent risks in all that we do. While the risks that might be associated with our trip to Kilimanjaro might look differently than our trip to the Adirondacks, we approach each trip with a critical level of respect for the risks of each area.

It is with those risks in mind that we develop our staff training. Woven into our time with staff are risk mitigation techniques (i.e. wearing sunscreen) and also what to do when an incident does occur (i.e. a sprained ankle). Right now, our staff are focusing on what to do when an accident does occur. This part of our training is called the Wilderness First Responder (or WFR) course.

Each and every trip leader of our programs will possess a WFR certification. Becoming a Wilderness First Responder is no small feat. This certification involves 80 hours of training covering a wide variety of medical emergencies. Additionally, the training focuses on what to do when these medical conditions present themselves in a wilderness setting.

We are proud to partner with Wilderness Medicine of Utah to train our trip leaders to earn this certification and then to be prepared for guiding our students all over the world. While we will never be able to eliminate all risks, we train skills to know what to do when an emergency situation does occur in the backcountry.