First-year Alaska WWAMI medical students gathered in Girdwood for a day of intensive wilderness medicine training earlier this month.

“I think it’s important for Alaska WWAMI students to gain wilderness medical experience simply because we all live and recreate here, and many of us plan to have our careers based here,” said Rya Berrigan, who grew up in Palmer, AK. “As we train to become physicians in Alaska, it is an added responsibility to be knowledgeable and comfortable treating patients either while we are in the wilderness ourselves, or if we see patients come in with injuries or illnesses sustained while out in the wilderness," she said.