Wilderness First Responder: How to Recognize, Treat, and Prevent Emergencies in the Backcountry

The Wilderness First Responder is a comprehensive text for the recognition, treatment, and prevention of wilderness emergencies. It’s essential reading for wilderness educators, trip leaders, guides, search and rescue groups, and anyone who works or plays far from definitive medical care.

This invaluble resource includes expert, step-by-step instructions, clear illustrations, and “Signs and Symptoms” sidebars designed to help you provide care in the wilderness–whenever you are more than an hour away from an ambulance or a hospital. You’ll learn how to conduct a patient assessment, improvise when ideal materials are not at handy, and decide whether or not to evacuate a patient.

Learn how to assess and airway obstructions, cardiac arrest, external and internal bleeding, shock, spine injuries, head injuries, chest injuries, abdominal injuries, fractures and dislocations, athletic injuries, soft-tissue injuries, cold- or heat-induced injuries, altitude sickness, insect bites and stings, diabetic emergencies, poisoning emergencies, allergic reactions and anaphylaxis, and much more.

Buck Tilton, co-founder of the Wilderness Medicine Institute of the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), wrote this book with more than a dozen medical professionals. The book represents more than a century and a half of combined experience in wilderness medicine, rescue, and education. Thouroughly updated and revised, this classic first-ever teaching manual for the “Wilderness First Responder” course is a must-have for anyone venturing into the backcountry.