This week we’re shining our Wilderness First Aid spotlight on a true adventurer. From mountaineering, to ultra running, to adventure racing, Ados Crane has traversed land and sea by nearly all modes possible. After numerous expeditions, he decided to take one for the team and get trained in Wilderness First Aid.
Keep reading to learn more about Ados and his support for wilderness medicine and then step-up your wilderness preparedness game by signing up for the Shoestring Adventures Wilderness First Aid Course and Backpacking Adventure November 3-5.
Wilderness First Aid Spotlight: Adrian ‘Ados’ Crane
Current Location:
Modesto, California
What is your current occupation?
Outdoor Sports Promoter, Gold Rush Adventure Racing
What is your level of Wilderness First Aid training?
Wilderness First Aid
What inspired you to get certified?
I’m an avid adventure racer, mountaineer, and ultra runner. I had done enough trips where my teammates and comrades and I would look around the group and ask ourselves,
If something bad happens, does someone know what to do?
Sometimes the answer was no, so someone needed to step-up. So I decided to get certified in Wilderness First Aid.
What was your favorite part of the course?
I took the course at a community college in Modesto, California. There weren’t many options so I enrolled in the Wilderness First Aid course. I think what I enjoyed most was the feeling I got at the end of the course. I felt like I actually knew what the correct first steps to take in an emergency were.
Have you had to use your skills in the field?
I haven’t had to use them in a major way, but I’ve used the skills in minor ways. Such as, cleaning up scraped knees and tending to other minor issues.
I have been in the vicinity of emergencies and felt vastly more comfortable offering my services or checking that someone somewhere is doing the right thing.
I once arrived on the scene of a car accident and noticed that someone was there who had been trained to do the right thing and had begun the stabilization process. I still felt good that I would have been able to do something. In the field, when you’re on a multi day backpacking trip, it’s comforting knowing that if something bad happens you can initiate the first steps of stabilization and care for someone until professional help arrives which could take hours or days in a remote location.
As Assistant Race Director for Gold Rush Adventure Racing, I organize adventure races which consist of teams of people who hike/run/orienteer, mountain bike, paddle and do rope work through the wilderness to reach a finish line. On those races, we have a firefighter who is an EMT who is there primarily to respond to emergencies. On Denali, I had my son with me who is a paramedic. On other trips I’ve had some other health professional.
Being trained can really make a difference. If the first contact with the injured person is by someone with any level of medical training, you can affect the outcome. One of the simplest things is that you have to start taking notes, and take vital signs, and document what happened. When you’re in the outdoors, the big difference is that you’re not 10 minutes from medical facilities.
It’s so important that the first steps that someone is exposed to are the correct steps.
I would hope everyone knows what those steps are.
Have you earned your WFA or higher? Share your experiences in the blog comments below and tag #wilderness1st to promote wilderness preparedness in your community!
