Now that I'm a WFRer

Here I am with Ben and Danielle, two fellow first responders. This is our first hike after being certified, and we are ready to save your life. Umm. . .the rainpants pulled up to my ribs are a necessary part of my uniform. . .it's like my superhero cover. By the way, I am still trying to design a logo for my cape--if anyone has ideas, let me know, I'm looking for something tough and rugged and feminine.

So anyway, Wilderness First Responders (WFRs) are trained in basic first aid care, with the additional expectation that they are responding to situations one hour or more from advanced care, like a hospital. So for example, instead of simply applying pressure to a bleeding wound--the basic first aid response, a WFR has to be able to clean and dress it, decide what kind of evacuation will be needed (if any) as well as monitor for and prevent complications in the meantime.

Things I learned that were new include how to reduce dislocated joints (shoulder, jaw, elbow, fingers and toes), improvising traction for femur fractures, how to use duct tape and sleeping mats to fix just about any trauma, how to care for people with hypothermia or acute mountain sickness (AMS), how to organize a basic search for missing persons, how to stop people from "trying to get dead" on adventure trips, and how to prevent needing to use any of these skills.

An immediate application for this trip that Holly and I are on is that we will be carrying much more food and clothing on our next backpacking trip. We realized that up until now we have been pre-hypothermic to mildly hypothermic for most of our hiking. Light hiking is no good if it creates survival issues! Extra layers as well as dry clothing to change into are the first step, and eating more is the second step to keeping warm. As a special treat, we bought chai tea packets to put in our emergency supplies.