Good hands on practices are very helpful, but nothing beats real,inthehowlingwilderness experience. I got decent training, but actual operations as a SAR volunteer advanced my ability, such as it was, considerably. A highlight was the thoughtful monitoring by James Wilkerson as our team treated a pulmonary edema victim on Denali - this was an outstanding experience even though it screwed up our summit attempt. Wilkerson is senior author of [/u]Medicine for Mountaineering and Other Wilderness Activities[u] which is a superb guide, especially the 6th edition.