Wyss Campus Building Named for Schimelpfenig

By Anne McGowan Advancement Communications Coordinator

Dave, as his co-instructor.”

The building bearing Tod’s name sits partway up a hill on the Wyss campus, the only year-round residential campus in the world designed specifically to support students training in pre-hospital Wilderness Medicine skills. Located about 12 miles south of NOLS Headquarters in Lander, Wyoming, the Wyss Campus exists, as Melissa put it, because of “the trust NOLS donors, large and small, have in our work. It is a testament to how philanthropy, hard work, and a little bit of dreaming can combine in ways that impact the world positively a few students at time.”

The sun shone bright and clear and a light breeze rustled the sage at the NOLS Wyss Wilderness Medicine Campus near Lander on October 6. Midway up a hill, a group of NOLSies became a crowd, gathering to see the ribbon cutting of a new building honoring one of the stalwarts of wilderness medicine at NOLS and across the world.

Tod Schimelpfenig, who retired in 2022 from his position as the NOLS Wilderness Medicine Curriculum Director, had to be pulled away from a course he was teaching in another part of the Wyss Campus to cut the ribbon on the building that is now named the Schimelpfenig Student Center. He shared ribbon-cutting duties with George Phipps, half of the duo, along with his wife Kristina, that made the dream of the student center a reality.

Tod’s history at NOLS is long and storied. He began his administrative career at the Rocky Mountain campus in 1978. He managed the Issue Room for five years before spending time as a program supervisor, purchasing agent, field staffing director, and developing and filling the role of NOLS’ first Risk Management Director.

During this time, Tod developed the NOLS Risk Management incident database and was a founding member of the Wilderness Risk Managers Committee and Conference. In 2010, Tod became the second recipient of the Reb Gregg Award honoring his life-long contributions to wilderness risk management. (See more about the award on page 8)

Between 1996 and 2002, Tod was the Rocky Mountain branch director before ultimately taking the position of curriculum director. He continues to serve students in NOLS classrooms, like he did that day at the Wyss Campus.

“It’s impossible to place a value on the depth of Tod’s contribution to the field of wilderness medicine,” said NOLS Wilderness Medicine director Melissa Gray in a speech before the gathered crowd.

“Tod’s work in the EMS system influenced his development of a backcountry-based wilderness medicine course for NOLS field instructors beginning in 1978. Tod is one of very few nationally recognized and honored wilderness medicine education experts. His efforts to translate the principles of EMS into relevant, practical, and evidence-influenced wilderness medicine practices helped transform the wilderness medicine education industry. Still, his favorite career moment was leading a course with his son,

George and Kristina Phipps, longtime donors to NOLS, not only donated funds to build the student center, but 20 years ago supported the purchase by NOLS of what was then called the Wilderness Medicine Institute.

According to Melissa, George and Kristina declined to have the building bear their name and instead chose to name it after someone who has played an integral role in the development and growth of wilderness medicine and risk management training at NOLS and beyond. Hence, the Schimelpfenig Student Center.

George—a member of the NOLS Board of Trustees, who along with Kristina had just completed an alumni trip in Bhutan— joined Tod at the podium, and with both men holding the scissors, cut the ribbon to applause and whistles.

In spite of the NOLSies-style pomp, Melissa noted that, “Here at NOLS he is just our Tod—with one ‘d’. Ever responsive, ever thoughtful, ever student centered. It’s fitting that after nearly 50 years of service to NOLS staff and students this building has the honor of bearing his name.”

Alumni Trips

Backpacking Wyoming's Wind River Traverse & Backpacking Ireland's Coast

Continue the adventure and learning by adding a NOLS Alumni trip to your calendar. Join a trip and trust NOLS to run the show. Our trips are often suitable for non-grad guests too. Alumni trips cater to the interests and calendars of our grads—last year our participants ranged from ages 10-78! We have a variety of offerings across a spectrum of physical challenge and are always adding more options. If you don’t see what you want, contact us for custom trip ideas. For more information or to sign up call 1-800-3324280 or visit www.nols.edu/alumni

Reunions are back—and we can’t wait to see you!

We are excited to bring NOLS to you in person in 2023! Alumni reunions are being held again this spring and fall in select cities throughout the country. Join us!

Up next: Reunions in Lake Placid, NY, Denver, CO, and Boulder, CO. Watch your inbox or the NOLS website for dates and details.

Backpacking Wyoming’s Wind River

Traverse

Dates | August 6-14, 2023

Cost | $2,295

Wyoming’s Wind River Range is calling! Polish your backcountry travel and camping techniques on an amazing and challenging traverse of one of America’s best mountain ranges. The team hopscotches the Continental Divide, reviewing all parts of the NOLS backpacking curriculum, including fly fishing.

Moderate Difficult

This trip includes challenging hikes with heavy packs on an aggressive route.

Backpacking Ireland’s Coast

Date | July 1-7, 2023, July 9-15, 2023

Cost | $3,395

Explore the trails of Ireland’s western coast from Ennis north to the Cliffs of Moher, the Aran Islands, and the Connemara region with a light backpack and a group of fellow NOLS grads, families, and friends. This trip stays in small inns where the music is traditional and the food is incredible.

Moderate Difficult

Enjoy variable hikes, light backpacks, and upscale inns along the Emerald Isle’s west coast.

FEATURED COURSE Wilderness Medicine Instructor Course

By Jim Wynn Staffing Coordinator

Iremember,more than six years ago now, walking into the NOLS Wilderness Medicine Wyss Campus classroom early one blustery March morning for Day One of what would prove the second most challenging course I would take through Wilderness Medicine.

I had designs to become a fully certified Wilderness Emergency Medical Technician. I had the option to become an EMT through another agency, but I had heard that the NOLS Wilderness Medicine course was the best. And I had heard it was the best because of the high level of instruction that you received. And as we moved through the course and experienced the stresses and the rewards involved, I learned how true those statements were.

I had never been taught by people so dedicated and knowledgeable.

And by the time the course wrapped up, and we received our certifications, I knew I no longer wanted to be just a Wilderness EMT; I wanted to be a NOLS Wilderness Medicine Instructor.

Flash forward to the Summer of 2021. After my second attempt, I got the call congratulating me and welcoming me to the Fall Wilderness First Aid Instructor Training Course.

Thus began the single most challenging course that I have taken through NOLS Wilderness Medicine.

The ITC is difficult. There is no secret there. But that difficulty doesn’t just lie in the endeavor itself. Truth is, one doesn’t casually get accepted to the ITC. When you get that acceptance call, you do so because you have put in the time to show that you have what it takes to be counted among the best cadre of instructors in wilderness medicine in the United States. And then you have to prove it.

And as difficult as the ITC is, I have never felt more supported or set up for success then I have by the instructors on the ITC. I stood on the shoulders of my advisor throughout the entire course. And then, after six days of stress, sleepless nights, emotional surges, and large amounts of coaching and assessment, I was told I had been found Eligible for Hire. I have never been prouder of myself then when I was hearing those words.

I had reached my foremost goal: I could call myself an Instructor for NOLS Wilderness Medicine. But I still had to teach a course.

The first course I ever taught was on the frozen shores of Narraganset Bay in Seekonk, Massachusetts. It was in an old New England barn at an Audubon preserve.

The temperature outside held at a frigid -6 degrees Fahrenheit, and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t much warmer inside.

Standing up in front of that class of students, all 30 of them staring back at me with their expectant faces, waiting for me to explain to them the Patient Assessment System, I froze as solid as the Providence River. I could feel those expectant faces get a touch more expectant. And then I remembered what my advisor told me before I student-taught my first class as a candidate on the ITC, in front of the other students and six instructors: “Just breathe, and then teach what you know.”

So that’s what I did. Two days and 16 hours of teaching later, watching all those happy and fully certified WFA students walk out the door, I had taught my first class for Wilderness Medicine.

And it all started from that first course at the Wyss campus so long ago. I wanted to teach for NOLS Wilderness Medicine, so I set my sights on that goal and never let go. You should too.