In August 2009, a clutch of outdoor professionals and enthusiasts embarked on what was to become a ride of a lifetime when then enrolled for the Wilderness First Responder, an 80-hour intensive course of handling medical emergencies in the wild. Organized by Wildcraft in association with the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) in Wyoming, USA this course equips you with a system and the skills you can rely upon when they you need to respond to a medical situation when conventional care may not be available.

Now we don’t know if you’re a Tamil movie buff, but here’s a movie you must not miss! Presenting AVM Productions’ latest potboiler ‘Vettaikaaran’ (The Hunter). Complete with thrills, chills, stunts, action sequences and all the razzmatazz associated with a small-town boy who comes to the big bad city to purge it of all its evils. Yes, there are baddies that get the pulp thrashed out of them and beauties who are wooed with the song and dance that is pure, unadulterated Kollywood.

So now you ask, “What does all of this have to do with Wildcraft, which purports to be India’s best loved outdoor and adventure gear brand?” You may even scratch your head, in bemusement that we appear to be excited about this, though the only thing outdoorsy about this movie is the fact that they have an outdoor location in Rajahmundry in Andhra Pradesh!

We’ll tell you why! It is because the movie stars a Wildcraft daypack! We kid you not, Vijay, the superstar sports the daypack backpack; good for a day-trek, or for carrying around your stuff around the city for the day!

Clearly, our daypack is headed for superstardom!

Nidhi Tiwari is an outdoor professional with a difference: while she loves the outdoors and has made it her career, she also realizes that if things happen to go wrong there needs to be someone around who knows what they are doing! That was why, along with fifteen other like-minded individuals, Nidhi signed up for the Wilderness First Responder (WFR) course, organized by Wildcraft in association with the Wilderness Medicine Institute (WMI) part of the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), USA.

At the end of the intensive course Nidhi and her course-mates felt a new surge of confidence to take on any medical challenge the outdoors might throw at them. From asphyxiation to snake bite, a broken limb to a bloody wound, they came away equipped with knowledge on exactly what to do so alleviate the situation. Nidhi decided to write about her experiences in the Deccan Herald: you can read more here.