Welcome to WMSS for 2020! We have an absolutely jam-packed year planned for you guys.

Thanks to everyone that was part of WMSS for 2019. We branched out and tried a whole heap of new things and it was great to have the support of all our members and trip attendees. The plan for 2020 is to build on what we did last year. That means more recreational events, a whole heap more academic sessions and maybe even some cheeky new WMSS merch.

This year on the recreational side of things we will be running events under four categories, hiking, climbing, water sports and snow sports. We have reorganised our committee and now have a dedicated person for each area, so you get the best experience on whatever trip/s you attend.  Hikes this year will explore from the coast to the mountains with enough trips to make anyone’s legs ache. Climbing, we will have a whole weekend of climbing and bouldering as well as a day trip for those strapped for time. For snow sports, our ever-classic cross country trip to Lake Mountain is back as well as some snowshoeing and our hugely popular downhill trip. In terms of water sports think surfing, snorkelling, kayaking and white water rafting.

Academics is where we are making some big changes this year. Our Academics Officer has been busy organising some amazing lectures to complement our recreational events. We will also be running some workshops to give you guys some wilderness medicine skills. We are the Wilderness Medicine Students’ Society after all so we can’t just spend all our time going on trips. We will also be bringing a little bit of academics on our trips, think avalanche awareness training or how to deal with stings and bites. All completely optional of course for those that just want to forget medicine on the weekends.

The blog is something we are going to be working on a lot more this year. In the lead up to events look out for tips and tricks to best prepare you for our trips, or even some inspiration to organise your own. There will also be interviews with experts in the field and some instructional wilderness medicine posts, you never know when it might come in handy. Keep an eye out later in the year for the WMSS Handbook. A collection of all our best information that will hopefully help you get out into the wilderness and maybe just help you do it safely.

Finally, we will be launching the WMSS Scholarship this year. We have found that options to explore a passion for wilderness medicine are severely lacking. We want to do anything we can to help so we will be offering a number of scholarships to students who have organised their own elective, placement, or are attending a conference related to wilderness medicine. More details to come.

Looking forward to seeing you all at some point in 2020!

Cheers,
Liam

President
Wilderness Medicine Students’ Society