Wilderness First Responder: How To Recognize, Treat, And Prevent Emergencies In The Backcountry

This book is extremely well written. The author gives you the critical information, including some of the "why" behind symptoms, without bogging down in unnecessary detail. It's clear that much thought went in to what to include, and not include, in this book, so that it would be very comprehensible. It is very easy reading and each chapter starts out with a scenario related to the theme of the chapter (e.g., high-altitude illnesses) and then ends with a "solution" to that scenario given what you've learned in the chapter. I took an intensive 2-day Wilderness First Aid course through Wilderness Medicine Institute 2 years ago, and seriously wish this book had been part of that course because concepts in that course make a lot more sense after the reading in this book. I tend to understand concepts much better when some discussion of the details of "why" are included, so found this book exceptionally well-suited to my learning style. I highly recommend this book and have been reading and referring to it regularly since I got it. You DO NOT need to be training to be a Wilderness First Responder to find this book useful and informative.

My wife and I are avid campers, backpackers, snowshoers and whitewater rafters. I'm also a WW kayaker. We've looked at a lot of wilderness first aid books and found this one to be our favorite.It is the most well organized, thorough and easy to follow. The information is comprehensive and concise. The diagrams are very clear and easy to follow and understand.The glossary and index in this book are the best of any wilderness first aid book we've looked at.The other books we've looked at, but found to be less ideal (in no particular order) are:- NOLS 5th edition, Tod Schimelpfenig- Wilderness Medicine, William Forgey- The Wilderness First Aid Handbook, Tod Schimelpfenig (This compact and waterproof book is a great one to keep in your WW first aid kit)- a few other books we found at REI

This is the text book for NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School) Wilderness First Responder Course. I highly recommend this for anyone who is serious about spending time in the outdoors, either solo, with groups, or leading trips. It is a powerful presentation and takes one far past short basic first aid courses. I've needed to utilize what I learned in the course on 4 occasions, and the knowledge I gained from the book and course was hugely important. The author takes the reader / student through the whole process of Wilderness Responding - legal and liability issues, patient assessment, injuries, illnesses, emergencies, critical thinking, planning, evacuation, and much more. The book is clear, concise, and treats complex issues in an easy to understand manner. Very Well Done.

As a 20-year trauma nurse, former EMT and boy scout, appropriate outdoors medical care is very close to my heart. Despite being written in 2010, this book is a good resource and, in many aspects, is superior to other "Wilderness Medicine" books, which may contain too much information for those taking local trips, especially those lasting less than 5 days. I did take 1-star off for a couple reasons: 1) there have been a lot of advances in the last 8 years, which would make this a more relevant resource 2) first aid/medicine as a discipline has its own language; as such, the inclusion of some basic medical terminology (ex. supine vs prone, distal vs proximal) and anatomy/physiology would be of great benefit for the provider, to say nothing of for the patientThis book was a bargain and a worthy addition to my library. Still strongly recommend!

I bought this as a follow-on to taking a Wilderness First Aid course. Wanted a handy reference to review the material and push my knowledge forward a bit. This book turned out to be the perfect purchase to meet that goal. It goes over all of the most common injuries that you're likely to encounter in the back country and goes into detail on how to handle each situation. I'm a Scoutmaster and spend quite a bit of time camping away from ready access to first responders and this gives me a great way to continually review the Wilderness First Aid procedures that we covered in the class. I highly recommend this book to anyone that wants to feel more confident with first aid procedures, particularly when you're routinely in situations where medical care is not readily available.

I purchased this Wilderness First Responder book after taking REI/WMI's Wilderness First Aid course and feeling a lack of confidence that I could actually assist an injured person. The WMI instructors were fabulous; however they presented an overwhelming amount of material and I was certain that I would forget most of it, since students do not receive a book in the WFA course. This WFR book filled the gaps very nicely. I expect to refer to it often and I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone certified for Wilderness First Aid AND anyone who spends time in the back country.

I have been excitedly awaiting the third edition of this text, and was not disappointed. Buck Tilton has taken what I believe was a classic textbook and updated it perfectly. Unlike other books which tend to reflect the author's bias, Mr. Tilton has updated the techniques mentioned, and removed some which have been disputed by the Wilderness Medical Society.I feel anyone wishing to provide proper care in the wild should not only read this, but continually review the materials within. This edition will be one of the texts used in all of my company's courses...at least until the fourth edition comes out. Bravo, Mr. Tilton!

Great and informative. I read thia book for personal knowledge without the intention of obtaining the certification. The information is great for any outdoors person. I looked at a few other books on the subject and found that other books were not able to narrow the topics into concise lessons that can be committed to memory and readily applied in the field

The reference book for all WFR's. The author knows his stuff and is a chronological format, ideal for the layman or medically trained personnel.

This was a very well written and laid out book, the information was current. I would recommend this book for any wilderness activity leader. The book contains case studies at the beginning of each chapter, inciting the reader to read through the chapter and in the conclusion put the information to work to finalize the case study.

good read

Ideal companion for the WEMSI wilderness first responder. Obviously has American slant but manageable for Brits.