Missoula Day Photos and a Mass Casualty Event in Seeley

We'll start by saying the finger in the top photo is moulaged. This was one of the many (and less serious) injuries that students had to manage during an overnight mass casualty exercise this past weekend. Instructors woke students up at midnight. Students had to find their patients, (who were buried in an avalanche) and care for them throughout the night, while also coordinating with local Search and Rescue (SAR) teams (thanks to SAR members from Seeley Lake and Condon for their help). It was an educational and exhausting event for all. Other pictures include vehicle extrication practice with Missoula City Fire Department, low-angle rescue practice with SAR, and a picture from the top of St. Patrick Hospital here in Missoula, as students discussed backcountry helicopter rescue with Life Flight's RN/ paramedic flight team. This coming week includes jumping in to the river for three days of Swiftwater Rescue Technician (SRT) training with the Whitewater Rescue Institute.

Missoula Day

Yesterday was an incredible day. Students started at Missoula Emergency Services, Missoula's ambulance service, for a review of ambulance operations. Following that, we were very fortunate to have Dan Corti, Executive Director of the University of Montana's Environmental Health and Risk Management Department, teach students about hazardous materials and EMS responses to HazMat scenes. We then went to Missoula City Fire Department for vehicle extrication, with students putting on turn-outs, learning from professional firefighters and practicing with extrication equipment. Following that, students had an update on recent developments in trauma care from John Bleicher, head of St. Patrick Hospital's Trauma Services. After that, they visited the LifeFlight helicopter at the hospital for a review of helicopter rescue. To end the day, they met at the University of Montana's cadaver lab to review human anatomy and physiology. We have some pictures (minus the cadaver lab) that we will upload over the next few days. Currently, everyone is healthy, back up in Seeley Lake and the snow.

Avalanche, Winter Survival and Navigation Training

Students returned last night from 5 days of winter survival, route finding and avalanche training. They snowshoed in 11 miles to a backcountry yurt, meeting up with instructors Dudley Improta and Tim Laroche from the West Central Montana Avalanche Center. The focus of this outstanding avalanche training, like that of the Semester, is prevention of injury through assessment and recognition of hazards. They learned to locate, access and treat avalanche victims. Students also learned to make snow-caves/ quinzees, continued honing their route-finding skills, and added more winter survival techniques to their repertoire. Now they are back to their heated cabins. For the next two days, many of them will complete their emergency room observations and ambulance ride-alongs.

More in the Snow

It is hard to imagine that a little over a week ago we were in 90 degree weather with 90 percent humidity. In Montana, students are honing medical skills in a cold environment, learning about hypothermia and frostbite, and navigating through the snowy mountains. From top to bottom, photos are of: looking East from the Ranch; learning the local topography with Andrea; mountain lion tracks found during the first day of exploration North of the Ranch; what it looks like when you try to run a race through five feet of snow; two groups of two meeting up in the hills overlooking the Blackfoot valley, just above the Ranch. For the next two days, many students are seeing patients in Missoula while riding on the ambulance and observing in the emergency departments.

In the Montana Snow!

Everyone is here in Montana, healthy, and getting adjusted to an entirely new climate. We are waiting for some good pictures from the first day in the mountains. For now, you can follow this SPOT link to our location near Seeley Lake. The satellite photo was taken in the fall, so you have to imagine the snow (which this year is significant).

Yesterday, we had a great introduction to the facility and the region by Jack that included some poetry and cowboy insight into living and managing risk in the Bob Marshall/Northern Rockies. Students

tried on snowshoes and trucked around, discussing mountain lions and the beginnings of bear awareness and encounters. We worked on North American map skills, UTM, township/range, and orienting to the particulars around the ranch. We talked about the shift in awareness from "look down while walking, stop, look up and around" to "look up while walking, stop, look down and around" snake awareness vs. lion/bear awareness.

YouTube Video Update

We edited the video a bit, adding some more photographs. View the new version here. Please share this link with anybody that might be interested.

Off Safely

The last day of the Costa Rica program ended safely with all students heading off on the airport shuttle or for a day at the beach. In a week we will meet in frigid Montana, expecting at least an 80 degree F change in temperature. Other pictures include work on the cobb stove, with particular attention given to Emilie for working so hard on her birthday (!), and the completed stove in front of the local Soda. During the community service project, students constructed and installed two of these simple, efficient and inexpensive devices. These stoves will significantly decrease carbon monoxide and airborne particulate wastes that contribute to so many of the respiratory diseases that we saw during the health clinic.