A Conversation Between 

Dr. Christine Norton - L.C.S.W. and 

Steve Smith – Experiential Consulting, LLC

Introduction: This conversation was spurred by the recognition that outdoor behavioral healthcare programs continue to serve youth and young adults with acute mental he...

Last Updated: 3/23/2020

We've been fielding calls and questions from outdoor programs about getting outside while managing coronavirus concerns, so here are some quick ideas, resources, and reminders.  Feel free to pass this information along to your programs and commun...

Is your school or outdoor program prepared to be resilient to Coronavirus?

Introduction: For anyone who is interested in wilderness education / recreation / conservation and the effective management of risk, there is no annual gathering more valuable and educational than the Wilderness Risk Management Conference (WRMC). I have presented at th...

Introduction: It's common for outdoor programs to experience "undisclosed medical / psychological conditions," where a participant (or parent) will withhold information in the medical form / application to participate. We will never know the full extent of these undisc...

The back story behind the Tenets and Principles of the Wilderness Risk Management Conference (WRMC), as explained by the past chair of the conference

"Simply asking people to care more doesn't create a system where there are less accidents. What scares me is that when we ask workers to try harder, we actually feel like we've accomplished something." - Dr. Todd Conklin

As we travel around the country to offer risk man...

I am a risk management professional, a ski patroller, and a wilderness medical / mental health first aid instructor - so a lot of my life is spent teaching and practicing how to respond to emergencies and incidents. I heard a Freakonomics podcast a few months ago calle...

The Boeing 737 MAX crashes reveal an opportunity for outdoor program leadership to learn crucial lessons about systems thinking, near-miss reporting, and organizational culture.

A group of teenage students on an overnight backpacking trip sit in a circle around a natural rock "table" in the Mojave desert, eating dinner and reflecting on their day along with their instructors.  After dinner, they clean up their dishes, strain the food particles...