A few weekends back Cog Wild and Central Oregon Trail Alliance (COTA) collaborated on hosting a re-certification class through The National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) and their Wilderness Medicine Institute (WMI) so that the group of mountain bike guides and trail crew leaders could re-certify in Wilderness First Aid. Most of the group attended a certification together two years ago, and now we were all meeting back up to spend the weekend working on re-sharpening our skills in wilderness medicine.
I have personally spent over half of my life with one First Aid/CPR certification or another. It began in my teenage years as a Boy Scout, and has continued. When I moved to Oregon in 2007 my first term as a student at Central Oregon Community College I took Wilderness Advanced First Aid, and since then I have either kept the certification current, or as was the case for the last two years this Wilderness First Aid certification. I feel that it is important for me to stay current on my training since so much of my time is spent deep in the woods riding, exploring, guiding, coaching, and/or building trails, far from ambulance access, and sometimes even out of cell phone range, if an accident happens I want to be able to help it end quickly and successfully. Over the years it has come in handy to have some knowledge about how to deal with injured people in the woods, so I keep my certifications current to always be prepared when something goes awry on the ride or adventure
The re-certification class was held at Skyliner Lodge, which was the original ski lodge of the corporation that has become Mt. Bachelor. Now that the building no longer hosts skiers, it is now used for special events and weddings. The set up is perfect for a class like we were set to participate in with ample space inside for us to sit and listen to the classroom aspects of the learning process, as well as lots of space outside in the woods to practice the skills we would be learning over the course of the weekend.
Day 1 started inside the lodge, seated at desks, where we could sip our coffees and listen to our two instructors introduce the material we would be working through. We started off working on the Patient Assessment System, where we go through introducing ourselves to the injured party and interview them on the how’s and why’s of what lead up to the accident or injury. We would work in the classroom, then move outside to practice what we learned in scenarios set up by the instructors.We all took turns as patients and res ponders as we went through the patient interview process.
Where the indoor learning happened, this is the main room at the lodge where we sat and followed along in our course packet taking notes on the different topics of the weekend. After lunch we began dealing with some of the typically injuries we would experience as mountain bike riders, guides, and trail building. These included spinal injuries, head injuries, shock, and wilderness wound management. All of these topics lead to scenarios in the field where we all got a chance to practice and re-practice the skills we would need in the field when a real accident occurs.
(One of the many gatherings around the instructor to watch and learn how to work through one of the many situations we could come across in the woods on an afternoon ride).
Day 2 started just like the previous day, in the classroom going over what we would be working through over the course of the day. In the morning we worked on more theory behind wilderness injury management, then we would go outside and work through a scenario that put the classroom material into practical use. After that we moved into musculo-skeletal injuries and how to teat them with things in our backpacks and things we can find and use in the woods.
(the art of the sling, and how to apply it to an injured party)
(the sling I put on Joe)
(splinting a leg)
(carrying a wounded patient)
We spent the day working through many different scenarios, and working with all the material we were learning. It was a great day of practice, and it was good learning for all of us, whether we were the patient on the first res ponder Two solid days of learning behind us, we left with a refreshed knowledge of how to deal with many of the situations that can present themselves when doing the things we do in the woods. In the end it was a great weekend of learning and practicing the skills we need to be prepared for in our mountain bike lives working and playing in the woods.
My Mountain Bike Life... 