Entries filed under 'WMI of NOLS'

A Good Head for Heights: Recognizing and Preventing Altitude Illness

Lurking behind every mandatory summit photo can be a heap of pain and adversity. The higher you climb, the thinner the air gets, leaving you vulnerable to altitude illness. Our NOLS Wilderness Medicine Institute classes about high-altitude medicine are often the students' favorites, as every class contains at least a few aspiring mountaineers. ...

Posted by Hovey WMI on January 29, 2013 12:45 PM & Tagged AMS, HACE, HAPE, WMI of NOLS, Wilderness Medicine Institute, altitude sickness and mountaineering | permalink | Comments



My Backpacking Story: How a Small Cut Became a Raging Infection

My problems started with just a little cut near the knuckle of my left index finger. I'd been backpacking for 10 days in arctic Norway and seen nothing but fog and rain the entire time. It's true, even busy instructors like me must sometimes take a break from teaching classes at the Wilderness Medicine Institute of NOLS to go into the wilderness ourselves. ...

Posted by Hovey WMI on October 3, 2012 10:00 AM & Tagged WMI of NOLS, Wilderness Medicine Institute, soft tissue infection and wilderness medicine | permalink | Comments



Humans Vs. Rattlesnakes, Part 2: Will Gaiters Protect Me?

A reader asks: Does wearing gaiters protect a person from rattlesnake bites? The question is a good one. The Wilderness Medicine Institute of NOLS has taught thousands of people how to handle emergencies since 1990, but we've yet to find a study that definitively answers how well gaiters protect from rattlesnake fangs. There are many factors that come into play. What size rattlesnakes? What types of gaiters? ...

Posted by Hovey WMI on September 14, 2012 8:45 AM & Tagged WMI of NOLS, gaiters, rattlesnake and wilderness medicine | permalink | Comments



Human Vs. Rattlesnake: What to Do If You Are Bitten

Each year in America some 6,000 to 8,000 people report venomous snakebite injuries, most by rattlesnakes. Amazing myths persist about what one should do in such an emergency, everything from sucking out the venom (which doesn't work) to electrocuting the bite victim (which hurts and just might kill you). We at the Wilderness Medicine Institute of NOLS have been teaching people how to handle medical emergencies for over 20 years. While we love a good, improvised traction splint as much as the ...

Posted by Hovey WMI on July 24, 2012 12:31 PM & Tagged WMI of NOLS, Wilderness Medicine Institute, rattlesnake and snake bites | permalink | Comments



Available Now: The World's Best First-Aid Kit

There comes a moment on every Wilderness Medicine Institute of NOLS course I teach, literally every one, where an earnest and well-intentioned student approaches to ask which first-aid kit they should buy. With apologies to all these terrific and beautiful people, the answer is quite simple: How the heck should I know? It's not a question anyone could answer for another person, any more than they could tell you which state you should live in, or which national park you should visit or what you ...

Posted by Hovey WMI on April 19, 2012 5:37 PM & Tagged WMI of NOLS, Wilderness Medicine Institute and first-aid kits | permalink | Comments