2024 Wilderness Risk Management Conference

To register for this preconference certification course, click here. Additional cost $385

Course Overview
Our Hybrid WFR Recertification includes an online component in addition to the traditional scenarios and skills. The online pre-course work allows you to review the curriculum at your own pace, and focus on the hands-on element during your two days on course. The pre-course work must be completed by the course start date. Once on course, the scenario-based approach to recertification provides you the opportunity to test your skills against realistic situations. You'll practice and relearn wilderness medicine protocols, review evacuation and decision making guidelines, and receive the latest updates in wilderness medicine over the course of two days.

Successful course completion will earn the following NOLS Wilderness Medicine certifications:
Wilderness First Responder
Adult, Child, and Infant CPR & Airway Management
Epinephrine Auto-injector

Class Format: The course includes an online training portion to be completed prior to the 2 days of in-person training.

To register for this preconference workshop,  click here - Additional cost $900

Course Overview
Whether your program is small or large, wilderness based, or study abroad, you have the responsibility to your staff and participants to invest in risk management planning. Building a comprehensive risk management plan can feel daunting. Our goal is to provide you a structured approach and tools to build a risk management plan appropriate for your organization. We've spent more than 50 years managing risk in wilderness environments around the world, and we're always learning. Join us to connect and share your valuable experience with peer programs, and let us share our experience and lessons learned with you.

To register for this preconference workshop, click here - additional cost $95
This presentation journeys through the American past exploring factors that contributed to the low engagement of people of color in the outdoors. From massacres to freedom marches, the paths that led us here aren't universally clear, so it's critical that we not only review them together, we must also explore and interrogate the ways we see ourselves and each other, as well as our capacity to create the kinds of outcomes we seek - beyond the jargon and memes. Studies show the benefits of being in nature are many, and without access to safe outdoor engagement, marginalized groups – which are often disproportionately less healthy than their white counterparts – face greater challenges to realizing full health and wellbeing. Part lecture, dialogue, experiential work, we'll explore how each of us can facilitate change within our own spheres of influence so that we interrupt cycles of harm and create the kind of changes we want to see in outdoor spaces and beyond.

To register for this preconference workshop, click here  - additional cost $150
In the words of Tema Okun, “One of the ways that white supremacy gets us is how we internalize these characteristics into our very personalities." In a small group, we'll spend the day digging into Okun's work exploring White Supremacy Culture. We'll read, reflect, listen, discuss, and connect. Then we'll practice our awareness through making observations in Salt Lake City. With a new foundational understanding, we'll wrap up by applying this lens to our own workplace cultures, working together to come up with "antidotes" for how White Dominant Culture shows up in each of us, and our communities.

To register for this preconference workshop,  click here - Additional cost $900

Course Overview
Whether your program is small or large, wilderness based, or study abroad, you have the responsibility to your staff and participants to invest in risk management planning. Building a comprehensive risk management plan can feel daunting. Our goal is to provide you a structured approach and tools to build a risk management plan appropriate for your organization. We've spent more than 50 years managing risk in wilderness environments around the world, and we're always learning. Join us to connect and share your valuable experience with peer programs, and let us share our experience and lessons learned with you.

To register for this preconference workshop, click here -  - additional cost $185
Calling all guides, ski patrollers, human resource professionals, administrators, people managers and more! Do you want to confidently respond to clients and colleagues with mental health or substance use challenges but have no idea how? Join us for an in-depth training to gather the tools and build the skills needed. This certification course teaches the signs and symptoms of common mental health and substance use issues, how to begin a non-judgmental conversation, and the gamut of resources you can encourage, from early intervention through potential crisis situations. Topics include, but are not limited to: how to approach, helpful/unhelpful statements, barriers to care, cultural considerations, panick attacks, thoughts of suicide, overdose. The tools learned can be applied not only to situations while adventuring with groups outdoors, but also with colleagues, family, friends, or with strangers. The sessions will consist of short presentations, activities (group and individual), discussions, videos, and scenarios (catered to the WRMC community). Participation in activities is highly encouraged but in a “challenge by choice” style.
Cost includes:
- Adult Mental Health First Aid USA Manual (physical copy), 230 pages of complementary, evidence and research based material with 300 source citations.
- Participant Processing Guide (physical copy) with additonal content, filled with activities and places to take notes to help process the content.
- Access to MHFA Connect, which will include a downloadable copy of the PPG and Self-Care Action Plan, as well as access to recertify online prior to your 3-year certification anniversary.
- Intructor's expertise utilizing this content for eight years, plus three years of training others.

To register for this preconference certification course, click here. Additional cost $385

Course Overview
Our Hybrid WFR Recertification includes an online component in addition to the traditional scenarios and skills. The online pre-course work allows you to review the curriculum at your own pace, and focus on the hands-on element during your two days on course. The pre-course work must be completed by the course start date. Once on course, the scenario-based approach to recertification provides you the opportunity to test your skills against realistic situations. You'll practice and relearn wilderness medicine protocols, review evacuation and decision making guidelines, and receive the latest updates in wilderness medicine over the course of two days.

Successful course completion will earn the following NOLS Wilderness Medicine certifications:
Wilderness First Responder
Adult, Child, and Infant CPR & Airway Management
Epinephrine Auto-injector

Class Format: The course includes an online training portion to be completed prior to the 2 days of in-person training.

Preconference workshop - no additional fee - Sign up to attend this session by filling out this form.
In this workshop, participants are given an overview of the history of inquiry-based education that highlights recent developments which have since made it a common place pedagogical approach in renowned educational institutions the world over. Drawing on Envoys’ results from implementing this model in our experiential education programs, the workshop will demonstrate how these two trends can be layered to create unforgettable immersive learning experiences. Participants will then be exposed to design thinking methodologies and planning frameworks used by Envoys in our internal program planning in order to facilitate the creation of their own programs. Ultimately, they will leave with a robust tool to submit future program proposals to the school administration, organizations or travel teams.

To register for this preconference workshop, click here  - additional cost $250
This workshop will provide an overview of several key legal concepts and then allow participants to review their own documents to determine how well they are addressing those legal issues. Attendees will be provided with a list of documents to bring from their organization (or have access to during the workshop). After two attorneys explain the relevant legal concepts, participants will then have time to review the materials for their program to assess where they may need to make changes or improvements. The attorneys will roam the room and be available to answer individual questions while attendees are reviewing their documents. Note: The presenters will provide general information only-- not a comprehensive review of individual documents. No attorney client relationship will be established but participants will have a good understanding of important legal doctrines. The issues to be addressed include: • Medical screening processes, including complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act • Setting clear behavior expectations and consequences • Using Additional Insured and Certificates of Insurance appropriately • Ensuring marketing materials are not making inappropriate guarantees of safety • Administration of liability release agreements and • Legal issues to address after a serious incident.

Preconference workshop  | no additional fee | walk-ins welcome
Exploration and awareness of the different items that cause interference in avalanche transceivers and how that affects different beacon's performance in both search and send modes.

To register for this preconference workshop, click here  - additional cost $150
Individuals and organizations are better equipped than ever to anticipate and prepare for environmental hazards such as water level extremes, snow cover, high winds, smoke, and fires. This presentation will demonstrate the use of several free or low-cost online tools to help you anticipate and prepare for environmental hazards. The assessment strategy is 1) Maintain a library of areas/routes of interest (Google Earth or CalTopo); 2) Evaluate surface conditions using near-real-time satellite imagery (MODIS, Sentinel) and environmental sensors (NOAA, etc.); 3) Evaluate recent and forecast weather (Windy); and 4) Document, evaluate, and prepare for the most likely environmental hazards based on 1-3.

​Preconference workshop | no additional fee | walk-ins welcome​​​
Attend this free preconference workshop! Casual, fun, and interactive precursor to the WRMC where we will set the foundation for terms, concepts, and create common language that will help participants comprehend and thrive in later conference sessions. No preregistration is required.

Preconference workshop | no additional fee | walk-ins welcome
Exploration and awareness of the different items that cause interference in avalanche transceivers and how that affects different beacon's performance in both search and send modes.

To register for this preconference workshop, click here  - additional cost $50
Scope of nine basic types of Liability Insurance, insuring 1099 Staff, Subcontractors and Independent Contractors, plus what you need to know about certificates of insurance, with real world examples. Bring your specific insurance issues and questions for discussion.

What type of negligence does each insurance policy cover and where in the world does my liability insurance cover our organization and staff?

Join for the 6th annual Adventure Risk Research Symposium. This is a free virtual event! A Zoom link will be posted here as we get closer to the event.

Learn from adventure risk management and outdoor safety researchers as they present their current research and peer reviewed articles ranging from across the globe. Researchers will share a broad array of new and very relevant topics. Here’s a snippet: Decision making in early-stage backcountry skiers and snowboarders | Practitioner needs identified from an analysis of 64 fatal outdoor and adventure program incidents | An examination of 30 years of Wilderness Risk Management Conference topics to the original 24 concerns first identified in 1994, The state of safety and risk management in India | Issues and potential resolutions surrounding mountain bike trail difficulty rating systems | Safety in scientific fieldwork and the potential application of methods from Wilderness Risk Management | An exploration of the impact of wildfires on outdoor and adventure program