New Mexico, way better than Old Mexico...

Que onda?

So... after ending my stint in Telluride with a string of powder days, having to reroute after Lizard Head pass was closed by an avalanche, and a quick jaunt out to L.A. for the damn Step 2 CS, I've finally settled into my home for the month of March. Albuquerque and the University of New Mexico, will be base camp for a month-long wilderness medicine course. We will learn search and rescue techniques, camp in some of the most beautiful areas on the planet, and work as the medical teams for the Bataan Memorial Death March Marathon. We will hone our improvisational medicine skills, learn to survive in the bush, and walk the razor's edge of our physical limits... Kinda like summer camp if Silky was in charge... Hoo-ah!

It's gonna be a blast... In only four days we've already learned a ton of improv and evac techniques, experienced hypothermia firsthand, and gotten to ski/bike/rockclimb/hike like crazy... This weekend we will spend learning survival techniques and land nav at Cabezon, a volcanic rock formation some 70 miles into the desert. Then, we'll head north to Taos to study avalanche science and high altitude illness while living in self-dug snowcaves. I've heard the snow is great right now, so I'm definitely planning to put the new sticks to work.

After a day off, its back to work in Socorro with the Abq mountain rescue team teaching us some high-angle rope rescue techniques for use on more gnarly terrain. We'll get to hoist up from Blackhawks courtesy of the NM National Guard, then head south to set up for the Bataan Marathon. Take all these ridiculously fun lessons, roll them around with some awesome desert hiking/mtn biking/rock climbing, then sprinkle it with some of that steep and deep Taos powder and you have one helluva good time... Man I love 4th year electives!

Now 'scuse me, I gotta study...