The program culminates with training in wilderness Search and Rescue, which itself incorporates most of the skills learned in the Semester, including navigation, survival, patient care, communication, incident command, and evacuation. The last two days are spent in intense scenarios including a backcountry mass-casualty incident and a blended medical/ orienteering challenge called the RATRACE (Reach and Treat Race). Using everything they have learned, they found, treated and evacuated passengers from a small-plane crash on a mountainside on the first day, then mustered up in teams of two on the last day of the program to find six individual patients scattered over a square mile of thick, lower-elevation backcountry terrain.
At each patient, Aerie proctors, including our MD medical director Dr. Greg Moore, evaluated their care and provided individual, critical feedback to every participant. This type of event characterizes well what Aerie strives to accomplish in its Semester program: intense, field-based scenarios that require of the rescuer outstanding wilderness medicine knowledge that is supported by essential backcountry skills. These folks are now ready to prepare for backcountry emergencies, to prevent their occurrence, to find, access and treat those who are lost and injured in the field, and to execute a well-organized, efficient rescue when required.
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