Wilderness Emergency Medical Education: Learn to save lives in the wild with Dorothy Adler

The morning grass is still wet when Jack Rutherford stretches out on the ground, a silver foam pad glinting beneath the soft sun of late fall. His classmates crouch around him threading poles and pads, tightening straps, and improvising splints from the contents of their packs. The scene might look like play to an outsider, but under instructor Dorothy Adler's steady guidance, it’s the first crucial lesson in how to bring order to panic.

Adler, a veteran instructor certified through SOLO, designs each scenario to feel just real enough. She creates chaotic emergency scenes to arouse the nerves, but a safe environment that invites learning and reflection. She guides students through the delicate art of how to stabilize a fractured leg in the field with nothing but skill, patience, and whatever gear you have in your pack.

“Slow down!” Adler calls from nearby, watching the group confer and adjust. “Make sure your patient knows what you're doing before you do it.”

Rutherford grins as they finish, his leg braced and wrapped in a foam sleeping pad. The class exhales together, a shared sense of accomplishment replacing nervous laughter of earlier in the morning. This was the first of many simulations the students would tackle before earning their Wilderness First responder certification.

In Alaska, backcountry emergencies can happen far from help, making wilderness medical training essential. Dorothy Adler, owner of Wilderness Emergency Medical Education (WEME) in Palmer, knows this firsthand. She has spent years preparing Alaskans to make lifesaving decisions in remote terrain.

Dorothy Adler’s passion for wilderness skills started in childhood. “I was a little animal in the woods spying on Tom Brown,” she says, recalling her early fascination with the famed author of The Tracker, who taught wilderness survival across the street from her home. As a little girl, she would watch his camps, learning how to start fires, put up a teepee, track animals, and even splint lower leg injuries with sticks.

Dorothy Adler’s love for Alaska’s backcountry began as a mountain climbing guide in McCarthy, in the Wrangell-St. Elias area. “I fell in love with the area and ended up moving there, building a couple of cabins and living there,” she says. Her current location on Buffalo Mine Road became the perfect base for her Wilderness school, a dream she had long hoped to realize in the Wrangells.

Dorothy continues to lead mountaineering and glacier travel courses, inviting anyone interested in learning the ropes to visit her website for an introduction to mountaineering.

She has taught for the SOLO Schools for 19 seasons and has been a State of Alaska EMS instructor for about 15 years, earning the EMS Instructor of the Year award and having her business recognized as Rural Business of the Year.

Her next Wilderness First Responder (WFR) course launches January 14. This 72- to 80-hour certification is designed for guides, educators, trip leaders, and anyone responsible for safety in the outdoors. “This course is really built for outdoor industry folks who are in leadership positions,” Adler said. “It’s the level of training you need when you’re the one people are counting on out there.”

WEME’s courses are certified through SOLO Schools, the world’s oldest wilderness medical school, and combine classroom instruction with hands-on, scenario-based learning. Students practice patient assessments, splinting, wound care, evacuation planning, and decision-making under pressure. “People can expect a lot of scenario-based learning,” Adler said. “We take the classroom outside and let students work through real situations in real terrain.”

Dorothy Adler also offers a Wilderness EMT certification beginning in February- April.With interest already high, Adler encourages anyone needing financial support to reach out early. The Mat-Su Health Foundation offers year-round Vocational Scholarships of up to help residents pay for training in this EMT certificate program. https://www.healthymatsu.org/how-we-fund/vocational-scholarships

If you apply for this scholarship Adler says, “Just let me know somehow a quick email is fine. I want to make sure people who need the funding still get into the course.”

Registration is open, but seats are limited.

“If your looking for a good holiday gift for someone you love, give them the gift of a life saving training..reach out to me directly.” States Adler https://www.akwildmed.com/about