Kassie is a second year medical student at the U. She’s passionate about rural, emergency and wilderness medicine, and loves working hands-on in austere environments. She’s also passionate about land and environmental conservation, and thinks a lot about how wilderness connects to people’s health. She enjoys hiking, backpacking, skiing of all kinds, swimming, and anything else that gets her out of the classroom.
Extreme heat is the natural enemy of any desert dweller. In Utah, as we make the transition into spring and summer, rising temperatures can quickly cause heat-related illnesses. As Utah sees greater temperature...
An avalanche is the worst nightmare of anyone in the backcountry during the winter. The whumpf, the low rumble, the shaking ground and the sudden wall of snow would turn a fun winter romp into a terrifying...
There’s a saying commonly attributed to Lao-Tzu, a Chinese philosopher, that states, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” For Liam McDonald, a student at the University of Utah...
In the world of outdoor recreation, nutrition is something of a loaded word. Vegan, paleo, keto, gluten-free, raw, and intermittent-fasting are just a few of the diets outdoor athletes have been known...
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted many systemic inadequacies in the U. S. healthcare system, but perhaps the most critical discussion of the moment is that of racial disparities in healthcare outcomes....
When we are making decisions in the outdoors, there’s often a pivotal moment when our safety hangs in the balance. We’ll weigh risk and reward to decide whether to drop into a chute, hike through a...
COVID-19 has unquestionably changed the landscape of our lives in 2020. Simple daily tasks like going to work, the grocery store, or the gym are limited or altogether impossible. There is palpable grief...
Take a look inside your home first-aid kit and you’ll probably find lots of things you won’t ever use or that you may not even know what to do with. The same holds true for your recreation first-aid...
What is wilderness medicine? Upon hearing the term, you might imagine a broken leg splinted with a tree branch or news accounts of helicopter rescues of lost and injured hikers. If you’re active in the...
Many changes have come to skiing and snowboarding over the years, but few have radically changed ski culture the way that the ski helmet did. Wearing a helmet has become so normal that when people choose...
After a heavy snowfall, you and a few friends go post-holing up Grandeur Peak one weekend in January. Then, after taking in the grandeur from the top (the view to the valley is finally clear!), you start...
The seasonal transition to winter in Utah can be a tough one, especially as we alternate between warm fall days and snowfall. Besides undoing your dreams of squeezing in one last hike without your puffy...
Between the first and second years of medical school at the University of Utah, there’s a 12-week gap from mid-May to the beginning of August that demands to be optimally filled. It’s often framed...
One of my least favorite parts about skiing in Utah is going back to the valley. Yes, it’s hard to get off the slopes after a particularly good powder day, but even more than that, it’s hard to pass...
