Wilderness Emergency Care

The Wilderness Emergency Care (WEC) program supports a family of courses to meet the needs of everyone with outdoor interests, from easy day trips to challenging and technical activities, including wilderness rescue.

The Wilderness Emergency Care (WEC) program supports a family of courses to meet the needs of everyone with outdoor interests, from easy day trips to challenging and technical activities, including wilderness rescue. The WEC textbook not only explains the concepts in clear language, it also shows you how to do all the skills, step by step, with many photos and drawings. The WEC Instructor Guide provides course outlines and lesson plans for all the wilderness courses and explains how to plan, prepare for, teach and evaluate a course. It also has a great collection of resources – including quizzes, scenarios for practical exams and evaluation forms.

Intended Audience
WEC Family of Courses

Basic Wilderness First Aid is an intensive 8- to 10-hour course for those who are involved in wilderness recreation. This course may also meet the needs of volunteers and professionals who lead groups on short trips in relatively low-risk situations.

Wilderness First Aid is a 16- to 20-hour course for those who are involved in serious wilderness activities. This course is the choice of many wilderness trip leaders and guides.

Wilderness First Responder is a 60- to 80-hour course for wilderness professionals and others who want a higher level of training or require WFR certification.

Wilderness EMT Upgrade is a 40-hour course for those who are already certified as EMTs. The course builds on EMT training and adds wilderness concepts and skills with many role-playing scenarios.


Please email [email protected] or phone (301) 745-3999 for prices or to schedule a class.