Hi there,

Long time reader of summit post (and forums). First time poster.

I guided for four years worked in Search and Rescue -- I noticed two things:
1. Finding certification courses and information wasn't easy.
2. People with certifications (even basic ones like WFA) can really save lives and make a difference.

I recently stopped guiding. And I started a project. I'm trying to get a ton of wilderness medicine (and safety) courses in the same place. I'm trying to make them easily searchable. And I'm trying to make it easier / more approachable for the average Joe. Here is what I've come up with:CERTHERO.ORG.

I'm wondering how it feels? Is it intuitive? I also know that this is an extremely collaborative community - so I thoguhts I'd also ask if anyone wants to help spread the word or work on other aspects of the site with me.

As I said. The goal is to get more people certified. If we achieve this, we all win.

Thanks,
-L

Coverage in New England is incomplete. You're missing most of SOLO's catalogue; their home base in New Hampshire is missing though you do list one course of theirs in Vermont.

I'd like to be able to input my current location (Massachusetts) and what I'm looking for (e.g., WFR) and see a list that includes nearby locations that happen to be in other states (New Hampshire, Rhode Island, etc). We have very small states here and it's more than worth my while to travel to another state for a multi-day cert course.

What do you envision happening after the "Register" button is pressed? There are some interesting challenges there. On the one hand it's a shame to send the user "offline" by waiting for the vendor to email them; on the other I'm not sure how much of a systems integration challenge you want to take on.

The site does have the virtue of simplicity. It does one thing (list upcoming cert courses) and it does it well - better than a casual Google search.

It'll be interesting to see if the site can become well-known. It's not the sort of tool most users will look for more than a couple times a year, but on the other hand there seems to be a dearth of competition.

magic johnson wrote:Are the Avalanche certifications IFMGA accredited or are they basic training classes?

AIARE is pretty much the big name in avalanche safety/forecasting in the US. All of the IFMGA guides I know from the U.S. are AIARE certified.