I'm a WFR!

When I was 19 a WFR seemed like quite a thing. A Wilderness First Responder sounded like a lot of training. An accomplishment. An expensive time commitment. Something I could not afford in either money or time. They also seemed exoctic. The only WFRs I knew were NOLS instructors. I had a WFA, wilderness first aid certification, and among the folks I traveled in the backcountry with, that was a lot.

Well, I finished my WFR less than a week ago! I am officially certified as a Wilderness First Responder by the Wilderness Medicine Institute (WMI). I am proud, and excited, and glad I did it.

It was a really fun class. I signed up on the NOLS web site, but it was run through a company called Ready SF. 30 of us started the class, 28 finished. It is intensive. At 10 days, full, long days, I was ready for a break by the end. And we had a day off in the middle. But I spent the whole day doing tasks that I had not had a chance to do during my class.

We had two night sessions. One was indoors, learning splints. One was outdoors, a night time scenario in small groups. That was my favorite part of the class. It was just really fun. Even though it was a chilly night (the whole course was cold, windy, and foggy) I managed to stay fairly warm (thank goodness for hand and foot warmers) and enjoy the view of SF from the Marin Headlands. The city lights poking through the fog are pretty awesome.

I met a bunch of really great people and learned a ton. A ton I hope I never have to use. Not for lack of backcountry time, but for lack of accidents.