Hello everyone~!
Been a while since I sent something out. Hope you are doing well and keeping safe! It has been a restful couple of weeks for me with the wilderness first responder training and our course break. Most of the group dispersed for the course break but some of us stuck around and were able to make a trip to Jasper national park (pictures below!).
Happy to share that I (and everyone else on the course) passed the wilderness first responder course! The kind of interesting (or bleak) view of wilderness first aid is that you are at least about 2-3 hours away from an ambulance and probably more time away from a hospital. Oftentimes bad injuries in the backcountry have poor outcomes because the first aid is only aiming to stabilize the patient to the best of the responder’s limited abilities and prepping the patient for transport. We did some scenarios with our instructors to make sure we can handle the common cases that occur in the back country but often we are fixing the immediate problems and just keeping the patient warm and waiting for a rescue.
However, all our instructors - Doug, Dave and Rebecca were badasses. They are part of the search and rescue in Alberta and have done some pretty wild rescues including waterfall rescues, avalanche rescues and helicopter rescues. It was both awesome and terrifying to hear these stories. It is important to realize the kind of risks you are taking and to internalize that these need to be always managed. Always good to remember the potential outcomes if unnecessary risk is taken. I am here for a good time AND a long time.
I also spoke of our trip to Jasper. We did 4 pretty small and touristy hikes but wow - that drive is stunning. And thought provoking. I have been to the Athabasca glacier before and I think every man, woman and child need to visit that glacier if possible and just follow the story of the receding ice. They have little placards to note where the ice was every decade and there is a massive canyon that has formed in the last century (a little less than the full 100 years) because of the receding glacier ice.
However, I am lucky to still experience some of this beauty that may or may not be here in the next 50 years.
We did the hike called hike of five lakes and I liked lake one, lake three and lake five the most. Lakes pictured in that order.
The icefield parkway is always a magical drive. Here we are approaching the Athabasca glacier
Notice the canyon forming because of the receding ice. Near the centre of the picture you can see where the ice is now.
We just started our rock climbing section which I have absolutely been looking forward to! Stay tuned for the next update in a week or so!
Cheers,
– G