Mountain Medicine and Technical Rescue

Abstract

The admixture of mountain medicine and technical rescue has long been a logical and practical combination of skills and knowledge. Recreational climbers and professional mountain rescue personnel alike may find themselves needing to be broadly versed in both disciplines when unintended events transpire in remote, technical, and/or high altitude environments. This formal merging of medical care with technical mountain travel/rescue knowledge is ultimately intended to reinforce the notion that in order to provide effective medical care in an often-harsh technical mountain environment, providers must, in the first instance, be able to sufficiently manage themselves so as not to become a liability to other team members.