Additional Skills

Rescuers with high-level medical certifications who cannot read a map, set up a shelter or start a fire are often more of a liability than an asset to a wilderness team.  Aerie developed the Semester in Wilderness Medicine in part to address the gap between medical certifications and outdoor skills by providing the context and skills for everything that happens before and after a backcountry injury or illness.

Knots are a good example.  Throughout the Semester, students learn and use knots common to rescue, shelter and splint construction, including bowlines, various figure of eights, taut-lines, trucker's and clove hitches.  Then they get out into the field, using these knots repeatedly in various scenarios, getting to know how they work, where they may fail, and when they are best used.

By the end of the program in mid-April, students will know these knots well enough to trust someone else's lives with their appropriate use.