Wilderness Medicine Instructors

From treating altitude sickness in the Andes to managing injuries sailing offshore, Phil has seen it all in his decades as an outdoor professional. His journey began with leading trips through his university’s outdoor program, culminating in a NOLS semester in Patagonia. Since then, he’s built an impressive resume: working with the Colorado Mountain School and Kent Mountain Adventure Center, leading extended canoe-based therapy expeditions in Southeast Alaska, and serving six seasons as a climbing ranger and EMT in Rocky Mountain National Park, where he specialized in backcountry search and rescue.

A lifelong rock climber ever since discovering indoor gyms in high school, Phil has a soft spot for moderate alpine rock routes. He’s tackled everything from the Cathedral Traverse in the Tetons to The Nose on El Capitan (in under 20 hours), rope-soloed the West Face of Leaning Tower, and summited the North Pillar of Fitzroy in Argentine Patagonia.

He’s taken a few adventurous detours along the way—once to kayak the entire Inside Passage from Gig Harbor to Glacier Bay, and more recently to sail his 30-foot sloop from Maryland to Panama. Lately, Phil has embraced hike-and-fly paragliding, preferring to soar back down after a hard-earned climb.

With over 20 years of experience teaching wilderness and emergency medicine, Phil remains as passionate as ever about equipping others with the skills to stay safe and thrive in remote environments.

Much of Matty’s life has unfolded between two places he loves most: the mountains and the classroom. Whether navigating the glaciers and ridges of the Pacific Northwest or teaching physics in a Seattle lab, he finds joy in both adventure and education.

On weekdays, Matty can be found guiding students through the wonders of physics. On weekends and throughout the summer, he's a dedicated alpinist and mountaineering instructor with nearly 20 years of experience leading technical climbs in high alpine terrain. His adventures have taken him from the lofty trails of Nepal and Patagonia to iconic local peaks like Mount Rainier, and hidden treasures such as Mount Triumph and Forbidden Peak in the North Cascades.

With certifications as a Wilderness Emergency Medical Technician (WEMT) and EMT-B, along with six seasons of ski patrol and nine years of service with King County Search and Rescue, Matty has put his wilderness medicine skills to the test time and again. He channels this wealth of experience into teaching Wilderness First Aid for CPR Seattle & Backcountry Medical Training—a passion that allows him to give back by educating others.

Juggling family life, a tight-knit climbing community, and the demands of search and rescue is no easy feat. Yet Matty meets it all with enthusiasm, gratitude, and a deep commitment to both learning and sharing.

Sara has rock climbed in Kenya, mountain biked in Uganda, scuba dived in Malawi, skied in India, trekked through Nepal, and backpacked across Albania—but it’s the high alpine landscapes of the Pacific Northwest that truly feel like home. More than a decade ago, she began skiing and climbing in her own backyard and signed up for a Wilderness First Aid course to learn how to stay safer in the backcountry. That class sparked something bigger: she became a certified WFA instructor, left her office job to spend a year climbing throughout the western U.S. and Canada, and eventually pursued nursing to deepen her medical expertise.

Today, Sara works full-time as a critical care nurse and spends her off days volunteering with a Mountain Search & Rescue team, where she puts both her climbing and medical skills to work. She also shares her passion by teaching mountaineering skills and leading technical climbs across the Cascades. With over ten years of experience as a wilderness and remote first aid instructor, Sara creates a fun, empowering learning environment—and often warns her students that they just might enjoy it so much, they’ll end up changing careers too!

Leah’s passion for the outdoors started early in life, but it was during college—while leading trips for an adventure club—that she discovered she could turn that passion into a career. After several years guiding kayaking, backpacking, and hiking trips, pursuing pre-hospital medicine felt like a natural next step. She earned her Wilderness EMT certification and went on to serve as an EMT in a remote community in North Carolina. Later, after relocating to Alaska to guide wilderness expeditions, Leah became both a firefighter and a member of the local search and rescue team. In 2013, she was honored with the National Park Service Search and Rescue Award for her role in a dramatic rescue: carrying a cardiac patient seven miles along the Chilkoot Trail and then volunteering to accompany the patient by ambulance to Whitehorse.

With 18 years of experience as a wilderness guide, Leah now brings her deep field knowledge to the Wilderness First Aid courses she teaches at Backcountry Medical Training. In class, she’s always happy to chat about ecology and botany with curious students. When she’s not teaching or in the backcountry, there’s a good chance you’ll find her underwater—she’s an avid fan of dive travel.

Lindy has spent over ten years immersed in both outdoor and traditional education. Her field expeditions span multiple days or weeks in the Rocky Mountains, the Cascades, and Alaska. Though she calls Seattle home, she divides her school year between teaching academic subjects and leading backpacking trips for a study abroad program that operates in both Chile and Idaho. In the summer months, she serves as a field instructor with the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS). Since 2011, Lindy has held a Wilderness First Responder certification and regularly incorporates a customized Wilderness First Aid curriculum into every NOLS course she leads. Her teaching style is focused on delivering practical, engaging lessons that empower students to feel confident and capable when handling risk and emergencies in backcountry settings. Outside of work, Lindy is almost always outdoors—whether she’s skiing in all seasons, climbing easy alpine routes, or running trails in the nearby mountain ranges.

With over a decade of experience as a paramedic, Shelby has responded to medical emergencies in both urban centers and remote wilderness environments. Her passion for the outdoors led her to pursue advanced wilderness medicine training through the International Mountain Medicine Center (IMMC) at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine. Shelby has also provided medical relief and education in the remote mountains of Haiti, further deepening her adaptability and skill in unpredictable field conditions.

Shelby is passionate about equipping outdoor enthusiasts with the tools and confidence they need to care for themselves and others in remote areas. Her hands-on teaching style combines paramedic-level knowledge with wilderness-specific training, resulting in practical, engaging, and empowering instruction.

In addition to teaching for Backcountry Medical Training, Shelby teaches BLS and ACLS at CPR Seattle.

When she's not working, Shelby can often be found hiking or climbing through the stunning wilderness of Washington state, always seeking her next adventure. She thrives in the outdoors and is dedicated to sharing her knowledge of wilderness medicine—ensuring her students leave her classes prepared, capable, and inspired to face the unexpected.

After growing up and attending college in the flatlands of the Midwest, Kent’s adventurous spirit drew him west to Washington and the Cascade Mountains nearly three decades ago. That same drive eventually led him to leave his engineering career behind in pursuit of a life spent outdoors. He found his calling in mountain guiding and leading outdoor education trips, where he could share his love for wild places with others. For the past 18 years, Kent served as the Director of Outdoor and Experiential Education at a middle and high school, guiding hundreds of trips and introducing thousands of students to the wilderness both in Washington and abroad. As part of that work, he taught Wilderness First Aid as a component of the school’s outdoor education program.

Kent’s personal adventures reflect his passion for exploration—whether it’s summiting remote peaks, paddling long stretches of river, trail running or mountain biking into the backcountry, or fly fishing in quiet alpine streams. With years of experience as a Wilderness First Responder, trip leader, and risk manager, Kent brings a wealth of practical knowledge to the classroom. He hopes that students leave his Wilderness First Aid course feeling confident, prepared, and inspired to embark on their own adventures.

A lifelong Washingtonian, Evan grew up east of the mountains but has spent his adult life working and adventuring west of the Cascades. He has served as a weekend ski patroller at Crystal Mountain Resort for over three decades (!), where instructing fellow patrollers sparked a passion for teaching that eventually led him to Backcountry Medical Training. Since joining the SPART unit of King County Search and Rescue in 2014, Evan has specialized in winter backcountry rescues and avalanche education.

 A professional member of the American Avalanche Association (A3), Evan teaches Level I and II recreational avalanche courses and is committed to promoting safe backcountry travel as the popularity of winter recreation continues to grow. He’s also a certified Basic Life Support instructor, regularly teaching professional rescuer CPR/BLS courses for CPR Seattle.

In his free time, Evan can be found exploring the mountains—often skiing down what he just climbed. He gravitates toward the lesser-traveled terrain of Mount Rainier and the North Cascades, and also enjoys rock climbing and playing recreational ice hockey.

Through his 25 years of conservation work, Adam has spent extensive time in remote environments including South Sudan, Namibia, Kenya, Tanzania, Niger, and across the western United States. He has been a certified Wilderness First Responder since 2009 and a wilderness guide since 2010, leading backcountry trips throughout the North and Central Rockies, the Colorado Plateau, the Mojave Desert, and the Pacific Northwest.

Adam currently works as a Natural Resource and Recreation Specialist for the Teanaway Community Forest with the Washington State Department of Natural Resources. He holds a PhD in Human Dimensions of Natural Resources, combining academic research with hands-on field experience to support sustainable land and recreation management.

When he’s not working, Adam enjoys mountain biking, backpacking, and backcountry snowboarding. He lives in Roslyn, Washington.

Gabi first discovered a love for the outdoors in 2013 after joining the outdoors club at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry. That same passion led her to take her first Wilderness First Aid (WFA) course in 2014. She graduated in 2017 and completed a Wilderness First Responder (WFR) course to deepen her medical knowledge before embarking on a southbound thru-hike of the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). The PCT proved to be a life-changing experience—especially her time in Washington, which convinced her she’d one day call the Pacific Northwest home.

Gabi’s interest in wilderness medicine grew on the trail, prompting her to earn a Wilderness EMT certification after finishing the hike. In 2018, she moved to South Lake Tahoe, CA, to work as a wilderness ranger in the Desolation Wilderness, and joined the rookie ski patrol during the winter. 

In 2019, she completed a two-month thru-hike of the 800-mile Hayduke Trail—a remote, rugged backcountry route across Utah and Arizona that required expert navigation and logistics. She went on to earn a Master of Science in Nursing from Johns Hopkins University in 2022 and currently works in the ICU at PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center in Bellingham, WA. She is passionate about serving medically underserved populations and has her sights set on becoming a flight nurse.

In 2023, Gabi joined Bellingham Mountain Rescue and now serves on its medical committee. She’s an avid rock climber—especially grateful to live just two hours from Squamish—and also enjoys splitboarding, mountain biking, mushroom foraging, and trail running or hiking with her dog.

Justin grew up in New England, where his love for the outdoors took root. From rock climbing and snowboarding to surfing, ice climbing, hiking, and kiteboarding, his passion for adventure knows no bounds. His travels have taken him across the U.S. and around the globe to experience world-class climbing destinations.

With nearly 20 years in the indoor climbing industry, Justin has built his career primarily as a routesetter and now serves as the Director of Routesetting for all Edgeworks Climbing gym locations. His background includes certifications and experience as an EMT, a Single Pitch Instructor, climbing guide, and a Wilderness First Responder. He also has extensive training in Work at Height, Rope Access, and Rescue operations—skills that eventually led him to the Pacific Northwest, where he found a deep connection with the mountains.

When he’s not on the wall or trail, you’ll likely find Justin behind a camera or chasing the wind while kiteboarding.