ALLENTOWN – After spending about 50 days in the wilderness near the Rocky Mountains, Allentown native Phil Murray remembers admiring the morning scenery the most.
“I really enjoyed being in the canyons and waking up and seeing the sun rise over the mountains,” said Murray, 27. “You can see the sun, the different colors and the sky changing and just different ways the sunlight hit off the rock.”
Earlier this year, Murray, who is a 2005 graduate of New Egypt High School, Plumsted, was one of several students who completed the Wilderness Medicine and Rescue semester at the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) in Lander, Wyo.
According to NOLS, the Wilderness Medicine and Rescue semester is “a unique blend of wilderness skills, medicine, rescue, leadership and environmental studies.”
Murray said the course began with four weeks of classroom instruction at NOLS’ Wilderness Medicine Institute Wyss Wilderness Medicine campus near Lander. The students received specialized wilderness emergency medical technician (WEMT) training. The instruction was a combination of urban emergency medical technician training and a wilderness first responder course.
The students had to participate in two clinical rotations at the Lander Emergency Room before earning their WEMT certification.
Once the WEMT certification process was complete, the students transitioned to the outdoor portion of the course, starting in southern Utah. The students traveled about 160 miles through canyons while living off the land. They navigated using topographical maps, rappelled into narrow canyons and used their newly acquired medical skills in realistic scenarios.
Murray and his classmates subsequently began learning river rescue techniques. About 84 miles along the Dirty Devil and Green rivers, both of which are tributaries of the Colorado River in Utah, were traveled by students as they learned to manage risk in Class II and Class III rapids.
“The rapids provided the perfect environment for students to practice swift water rescues and hone their WEMT skills,” NOLS spokesperson Cole Medders said.
At that time, the students instructed each other about river ecology and the principles of the “Leave No Trace” movement, which pertains to outdoor ethics and the conservation of natural resources.
Finally, the students returned to Wyoming for the rock climbing portion of the course, which focused on techniques such as anchor building, rope management, belay escape and how to haul a fellow climber up a wall.
The skills that were taught were specifically for a number of rock climbing emergencies.
Murray, who graduated from the United States Coast Guard Academy in Connecticut in 2009, said he was familiar with some of the course through previous emergency medical response courses.
Murray said the interpersonal aspect of the experience was something to be considered.
“Going from a military training atmosphere to a civilian training atmosphere and then having to deal with other people who have a little education in the outdoors … you have to develop interpersonal and communication skills,” he said. “I think NOLS has a great program to develop those skills.”
In one example, Murray said the gulf of experience between his classmates and himself came up during the rock climbing portion of the course.
Each student was required to take ownership of specific equipment and handle certain responsibilities in the wilderness.
Murray said he helped make sure his classmates got to where they needed to be. In the case of the rock climbing and rappelling portion of the course, he helped set up the rappels and made sure his classmates were not in danger.
“I got to help manage the risk and help my classmates safely get down through each section,” he said.
Murray is pursuing a master’s degree in environmental management at the University of San Francisco. He said he hopes to become a park ranger in the Pacific Northwest.