6 Essential Tips for Mountain Medicine

Priority one when leading climbing expeditions through mountainous terrain is to ensure your team's health and safety. Before departure, it is possible to prevent minor issues from developing into major crises on the trail by properly preparing for potential medical issues.

In light of this, the following are some important guidelines for preparing medical supplies and dealing with health issues when guiding in the mountains:

1. The most common cause of medical problems is GI dysfunction, followed by AMS and MSK problems. It can save an expedition if you and your patients have access to effective treatments for healthy bowels, such as softeners and hardeners.

2. Things happen frequently...well, blisters are obvious. A well-shared understanding of how to avoid it may be essential to a happy body or team. Easy-to-carry items like "duct" (gaffer) tape, which can be applied to walking poles when necessary, can prevent or even anticipate these conditions.

3. Work with other specialists to learn how to assess, manage, and extricate clients who might require specific care. Broaden your knowledge and skill set as much as possible. However, if at all possible, avoid going it alone. Instead, look for or be prepared to contact "top cover" to share a decision or request an expert review.

4. When it comes to kits and medicines, look for "Swiss-army knife" solutions. Drugs like aspirin, cyclizine, adrenaline (epinephrine), and codeine have multiple uses and additional multi-modal benefits for preventing medical signs and symptoms. Apps like the BNF can be used without internet access to promote good practice.

5. Having multiple laminated copies of signed prescriptions in the various languages of the countries you anticipate passing through can prevent unnecessary delays when shipping drugs around the world. If you use the same strategy for medical kit bag inventories, you might just be able to stop kit bags from opening and closing as you cross border after border.

6. When you don't have to, don't improvise. On many planned expeditions, medicine will have already arrived. What lessons can be learned from past mountaineers? Downloads, medical assistance, and direction can be found at organizations like the British Mountaineering Council, the Royal Geographical Society, and the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.