u/GumbyFred

I am pursuing my diploma in mountain medicine and unfortunately, do not have any glacier activity in the state of Colorado. I have a conditional candidacy, but I need to demonstrate glacier activity\\proficiency by June 2028. This winter I’ll be getting comfortable with colouirs/basic winter navigation here in Colorado, but in June, I will be heading up to Washington state for a conference. I just don’t know if I’ll have the PTO at that time and it might be a struggle to get scheduled, though it would be much cheaper at only $1600. Alternatively, in spring of 2028 I will be rotating with a tribal health system in Alaska and I figured if I’m already up there, I could do a longer more thorough course with more flexibility to schedule it, but it costs about $4400. Anyone have experience with either of these? Did the Alaska one and wish you did something shorter or did the Mount Baker one and wished you did something longer? This is not just to do a summit or to check a box, I would like to be very proficient if I can be for decades to come. So it’s basically just a foundation for me.

I am currently just a PGY-1 in Family Medicine tailoring some of my training towards wilderness medicine which mostly involves some EMS, National parks service, Alaska, rural, and street medicine rotations plus doing my DiMM/FAWM. While I have previously been more interested in travel, expedition med, and rural EMS/SAR, I have become increasingly interested in disaster medicine and disaster response.

Seeing what just happened in Nepal is devastating and I know right now as a PGY-1 I would almost be useless…but as a PGY-2/3 and beyond, I recognize I will have the skills necessary to actually deploy for 1-3 week periods and help people who would acutely benefit. I have explored traditional humanitarian work but it seems more medical tourism-y or self-justifying in existence rather than actual “these people need help now” which I think is more up the alley of my moral compass.

Anyone have any experience? I asked over on the Family Medicine sub as well, but figured a cross post to folks who might have more experience in this realm mattered as well.

I am currently just a PGY-1 tailoring some of my training towards wilderness medicine which mostly involves some EMS, National parks service, Alaska, rural, and street medicine rotations plus doing my DiMM/FAWM. While I have previously been more interested in travel, expedition med, and rural EMS/SAR, I have become increasingly interested in disaster medicine and disaster response.

Seeing what just happened in Nepal is devastating and I know right now as a PGY-1 I would almost be useless…but as a PGY-2/3 and beyond, I recognize I will have the skills necessary to actually deploy for 1-3 week periods and help people who would acutely benefit. I have explored traditional humanitarian work but it seems more medical tourism-y or self-justifying in existence rather than actual “these people need help now” which I think is more up the alley of my moral compass.

Anyone have any experience?