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Crested Butte Outdoors Instructors

Sue Purvis,

WEMT-IV

Owner,

Crested Butte Outdoors

Sue Purvis is a certified Wilderness Emergency Medical Technician, Lead Instructor with Wilderness Medical Associates, and owner of Crested Butte Outdoors.

Sue offers a unique and valuable perspective on the challenge of providing medical care in remote and extreme environments, and the ability to teach from a solid base of practical experience. She has worked and traveled around the world for over 20 years as both a wilderness medical instructor and exploration geologist. Her professional work has taken her to remote places such as Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa, Antarctica, the Amazon, and the rugged mountains of the Sierra Madre in Mexico. She calls Mt. Crested Butte, Colorado at 9,500 feet above sea level her primary home. Sue is an avid mountain bike rider, backcountry skier and backpacker.  

In a career that began in 1985, Sue has served as an wilderness survival instructor, a professional geologist, ambulance EMT, professional ski patroller, and backcountry ski guide in Colorado.  Over the past 10 years she divides her time between assisting with orthopedic trauma and emergency medicine at an urgent care clinic at the Crested Butte Ski Area, and teaching wilderness medicine and SAR courses. 

Sue is a  member of Crested Butte Search and Rescue, Search and Rescue Dogs of Colorado, and owns and handles a search dog named Tasha. She has been called to over 60 missions in the high country of Colorado with her search dog. 

In 1997, Sue founded the company Crested Butte Outdoors (CBO). To date her company had taught over one thousand students worldwide. CBO offers wilderness medical courses, wilderness search and rescue courses, and avalanche courses. She offers courses in Colorado, California, Utah, New Mexico, Africa, and Nepal.  

David Johnson, MD
 

David Johnson is President and Medical Director of Wilderness Medical Associates as well as director of a hospital emergency department in Georgia. His experience in trans-Atlantic sailing expeditions, numerous land-based expeditions in North and South America as well as urban emergency medicine have given him a very broad base of extended patient care in difficult and demanding situations. 

Mark Fisher,

WEMT

Mark Fisher’s certifications include:  Wilderness EMT, Level III Avalanche Forecaster, Level “A” Dog Handler for Wasatch Backcountry Rescue, and Level I Avalanche Instructor.

Mark started his outdoor career in the early 1990’s, when he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps and became an Assault Climber.  His passion for climbing encouraged him to pursue a degree in Outdoor Recreation and Kinesiology.  He served as the Officer in Charge of the Mountain Leader’s Course at the Marine Corps Mountain Training Center in Bridgeport, California.

Mark is an avid outdoorsman, who enjoys activities such as skiing, rock climbing, trail running, and working with rescue dogs.  He has been a certified Wilderness First Responder since 1996, and a Wilderness EMT since 1998.