Don’t Forget Those Pearly Whites

I was reminded of this just a few days ago. No, not on a camping trip or even in the wilds. It was, nonetheless, a good reminder to review my medical supplies. This is not the sexy side of wilderness medicine. What attracts most of us to the austere or wilderness medical setting is the…

Pre-Hospital Care in Mass Casualty Shootings–An Update

Update: In September of 2019, shortly after my post below, Capt. Brad Bennett published an update for the Committee on Tactical Combat Casualty Care (CoTCCC) in the WMS magazine article titled, “Committee on Combat Casualty Care Updates and Expands Recommended Tourniquet List”. I wanted to repost my article with some updates and add a link…

Hydration and Rehydration

Hydration aka water…essential for life. We take for granted this vital substance which we cannot live without. In much of the world, however, clean drinking water is a luxury. In a previous post, I have discussed how to make this water safe to drink. In this post, I want to examine what you might be…

Medical Preparedness

The news is full of stories that are forever reminding us that we have to be prepared for just about anything these days. Some may choose to take this to the level many think of as being a “prepper” while others have done little to nothing expecting all needs to be met by local or…

Pre-Hospital Care in Mass Casualty Shootings

You will likely recognize the above picture as a CAT tourniquet. As programs such as Stop The Bleed and others have focused on the use of tourniquets in the field, these have become a popular item for most to carry in our kits. This is for good reason too. Studies and data coming from military…

Be prepared for travel

I have updated and am republishing the following blog post as it remains pertinent and should stay top of mind. Please send any questions to me in the comments and feel free to share your own tips there as well. Planning your trip of a lifetime? Or just a short getaway in a far away…

Wilderness Texting

On a recent adventure into the Colorado wilderness, we came along the note above. One hiker was communicating to the group that they were taking an alternate route and would meet them at base camp in a few days. While this may seem unusual in today’s world of text messages and wide cell phone coverage,…

Improvised and Multi-Use Gear

There are any number of pieces of hiking equipment that can be improvised or turned into multi-use products. Some hikers just enjoy seeing what they can get away with as far as the lightness of their pack. But there are good reasons to lighten the load, if possible. The lighter the load, the easier the…