About Aerie Backcountry Medicine
Aerie Backcountry Medicine is based in Missoula, and delivers wilderness and front-country medical education to more than 8,000 students annually across the United States, Mexico, Central America, and India.
In addition to education, Aerie deploys EMTs and paramedics to provide medical coverage for wildland fire operations. Under the leadership of its instructional staff, Aerie delivers training for outdoor enthusiasts both with and without prior medical experience, as well as for United States military units, EMTs, paramedics, and other licensed healthcare professionals.
All Aerie courses are designed around the principle that adults learn most effectively through engagement in challenging, realistic scenarios facilitated by professional educators who are actively working in the medical and rescue fields. Guided by this philosophy, Aerie prepares students to operate in demanding environments requiring prolonged patient care, limited resources, and minimal access to definitive medical services.
Our Emphasis
While we operate internationally in some of the world’s most remarkable environments, we define ourselves by our commitment to individual students and to the local communities where we teach. This balance—national and international reach paired with a deliberately small instructional footprint—allows us to remain aligned with current industry best practices while maintaining a highly personalized educational experience.
Our instructors draw on professional experience as paramedics, registered nurses, EMTs, mountain guides, firefighters, and ski patrollers to deliver practical, field-tested instruction in both wilderness and urban medicine. We emphasize prevention, early intervention, and accurate patient assessment so our students can distinguish between conditions that can be managed in the field and those requiring immediate evacuation. Our courses also address the unique challenges of improvisation, prolonged patient care, and the psychological demands of treating patients in remote and austere environments.
From our experienced instructional staff to our comprehensive wilderness, rural, and urban medical offerings, we are committed to delivering only high-quality education and services. Through this commitment, we support our students, our staff, and the communities we serve. Our instructors are equally effective teaching in remote desert environments and in traditional classroom settings. Students may enroll in our public courses, or we can travel to any location to provide customized training for organizations and agencies.
We invite you to continue exploring our site for additional information or to contact our office directly with questions.
Aerie’s Training Partners
Service is the core of Aerie’s mission, and it is no coincidence that many of our training partners are conservation service corps and land-management agencies. We provide ongoing training to many other youth conservation corps and universities, including:
- Northwest Youth Corps
- Student Conservation Association
- Washington Conservation Corps
- Conservation Corps Minnesota and Iowa
- The University of Montana
- Montana State University
- Carroll College
- Washington State University
In addition, Aerie provides regular training to:
- US Forest Service and BLM Smokejumpers
- USAF PJ and SERE Specialists
- Hotshot and other wildlands firefighting crews
- Search and Rescue teams
- State and federal land agencies
- Youth-at-risk programs
- Guiding organizations
- Private individuals
Presentations
Aerie presents at national and international conferences, collaborates with other experts in the field to shape wilderness medicine curricula, and is asked by many large organizations to consult on wilderness medicine and risk management. Some of the highlights include:
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The Wilderness Medical Society’s (WMS) Annual Conferences
WMS is the world’s leading physician-based wilderness medicine organization, and Aerie has presented at numerous WMS conferences on drowning, swift water rescue (offered in conjunction with the Whitewater Rescue Institute), and management of envenomations.
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The Wilderness Risk Management Conferences
WRMC is the most prominent gathering of wilderness risk managers in the United States. Aerie presentation topics have included, “Spinal Injury Management in the Backcountry”, “Managing Risk for Conservation Corps”, “Trends in Injuries and Illnesses for Conservation Corps”, “Preparing Your Employees to Teach Wilderness Medicine to Your Participants”.
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Mount Rainier National Park
Keynote Speaker for Mount Rainier National Park’s All-Staff Safety Training
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Mussoorie Mountain Festival
Lead presentation, “Case Studies in Wilderness Medicine”, at the annual Mussoorie Mountain Festival in Woodstock, India.
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US Postal Service
Featured presenter for the US Postal Service for their unveiling of the “First Responder” stamp.