Backcountry Pulse

05/02/2026

To be honest, this post has been sitting in drafts for a while. It’s felt weird to write a “happy recap!!” when so much in the world is heavy right now. If you’re carrying grief, exhaustion, anger, uncertainty or all of the above, you’re not alone. We are too.

What we do know is this: care is not abstract. Care is a skill. Care is a practice. Care is something we can learn and offer each other even when things feel insurmountable.

Last year, we taught wilderness medicine courses across North America, building confidence, resiliency and that calm-in-the-chaos muscle that matters in the backcountry and beyond.We got to do our favorite kind of work: learning that’s real, human and anchored in community.

If you’ve taken a course with us, hosted one, bought our book, demo’d our app, cheered us from the sidelines or sent a late-night “what should we do about…?” email, we ♥︎ you. TONS.

Big hugs/enormous gratitude for our 2024- 2025 partners and all the impact we’ve built side by side:

🌿 Sogorea Te’ Land Trust (CA)

🌻 Cottonwood Institute + Nature School Cooperative (CO)

🥾 Braided Seeds + Washington Trails Association (WA)

🏳️‍🌈 Kindling Collective + NBEC (ME)

🧗🏾‍♀️ Brown Girls Climb (NY,CO)

🎒 Blackpackers (CO)

🌄 Rise Outside (NY)

🚵‍♀️ Women’s Wilderness (CO)

☀️ Black Outside (TX)

⛏️ Golden Mountain Guides (CO)

🩺 Intermountain Health (CO)

🌲 Black Kids Adventures (AL)

🏕️ JBER Outdoor Adventure Program (AK)

🚑 Rocky Mountain Rescue Group (CO)

🛶 Camp Wabun + Northwaters (CAN) .langskib

❄️ Arc’teryx (CO + NY)

We’re stepping into 2026 with that same intention for the people and organizations who keep making this work possible. Interested in bringing a course to your community? Let's make it happen.

24/10/2023

Our faces are still sore from all the smiles with the incredible crew! Words can’t describe the camaraderie, friendships formed, beautiful demonstration of patient care in action and all the hard, hard work everyone put in to our 10-hour scenario day/night. Our hearts are radiating with joy 🥰

11/09/2023

…and that’s a wrap for our September . Hard hats off to this incredible crew! ⛑️ Hours and miles of patient extrication into the night, beautiful compassionate care, lots of rescuer reset breaths, excellent teamwork, communication, question asking and decision making! Wowwowow. That’s a good cause for a run on sentence 😜 We can’t make these classes work without our volunteer patients. Many are previous WFR students who come back and return the favor 🥹🥰 and some are folks who are interested in wilderness medicine and want to see what it’s all about! We can’t thank you enough!

31/01/2023

We’re stoked! 🙌

Registration Deadline (February 3rd 23:59) Traditionally, wilderness medicine has had a “one size fits all” approach and doesn’t address a wide range of representation of individuals. Backcountry Pulse’s curriculum uniquely integrates inclusive patient care guidelines and materials represent...

25/01/2023

01/09/2022

HEY Y’ALL 👋🏽 it’s been a while so humor our reintroduction 😏

Backcountry Pulse is a WOC owned company founded on the premise of creating access, providing opportunity, increasing representation and breaking barriers in backcountry medicine, outdoor education and leadership.

Traditionally, wilderness medicine has had a “one size fits all” approach and does not address a wide range of representation. Movement on these issues starts with the content we provide for our students and instructors, the educators that are the face of these courses, and the cultivation of strong partnerships and community building.

We initiate these changes starting with our student materials and course format. From the birth of our company, illustrations and graphics in our manuals have always been representative of many identities. Our courses weave in issues that are not normally addressed in wilderness medicine programming such as skin color specific changes of all skin tones during patient assessment, considerations across land we recreate on and attention to the dynamics of race, culture, ability level, and gender identity.

We aim to support underrepresented formalized clubs, affinity groups, and nonprofits through developing custom wilderness medicine programming (ex. WFA,WFR) for each organization. Having a dedicated course taught by instructors that are reflective of those spaces creates a safe space for students to learn and grow.

Pictured here is our stoked group of interns, park rangers, and employees who spent the day learning how they could take their current wilderness medicine education and apply an inclusive, compassionate lens. ♥️

17/03/2022

11/05/2020

Humongous shout out to our fierce team of instructors located all over the country delivering patient care during these times. Our badass instructor and flight nurse Fischer appeared on the news to chat about how UCHeath is transporting COVID patients. We love our little team and are so grateful to have such passionate, experienced individuals that are eager share their experiences with all of our students. 🥰

The health system is able to use their air ambulances to transport COVID-19 patients.

26/08/2019

Thanks for spotlighting members of our team Wilderness Medical Society! 🥰 We love being a part of such an incredible community.

16/08/2019

Thanks for sharing AAC Rumney Craggin' Classic! We're stoked to be there.

EXCITING NEW ADDITION to the 2019 Craggin' Classic Event!

Wildnerness First Responder Recert and Wildness First Aid Certification 🙌

About the Program:

The American Alpine Club is partnering with Backcountry Pulse to offer an incredible benefit for AAC members to bolster safety and medical skills in the climbing community. AAC members interested in getting their Wilderness First Responder Certification can do so for $575 at the climber’s huts around the country. Get stoked. Need to recertify or interested in an introductory Wilderness First Aid course? Look no further than the fun of the Craggin Classics to recertify your Wilderness First Responder or get your Wilderness First Aid certification for $175. All courses are taught to the internationally recognized guidelines and evidence based practices in wilderness medicine but are tailored specifically to climbers. Come learn, climb in iconic locations, hang with an amazing community and get psyched for ticking off your next climbs as a more prepared partner.

PSYCHED? You can sign up at the link below: awesome certification and knowledge that could make all the difference when you are out climbing, in the event of an emergency. BE PREPARED.

Follow the link to learn more: https://americanalpineclub.org/rumney-cc (close to the bottom - more course details)