North American Educational Adventure Racing

Adventure races have become a global phenomenon in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. This new format of competition and endurance were further popularized in international television programming with The Amazing Race and Eco-Challenge: The Expedition Race. Many smaller scale adventure races developed following this surge including the race that David Ledrick and Michael Caudell won in 2000 that served as the spark for MedWAR - a fusion between an adventure race and wilderness medicine challenges.

Caudell recalls his inspiration for wilderness medicine developing as it does for many of us: a passion for the outdoors growing up and a desire to translate his medical training to an austere environment. His WM education was self-directed after picking up a copy of Auerbach’s text from his ED during residency. After 2 years as MCG faculty, Caudell went into community practice while Ledrick stayed at MCG, during which they discovered adventure racing and birthed the concept of MedWAR. They teamed up to develop the first race with a group of MCG medical students as a research project since there was nothing else around like it in formal medical training.

As faculty at the Medical College of Georgia (MCG), Caudell and Ledrick teamed up with a group of MCG medical students to develop MedWAR as a research project since there was nothing else around like it in formal medical training. The students produced the first MedWAR Challenge in 2001 outside of Augusta then presented the project and concept at SAEM as an “Innovation in Education”. The event was a success with participants from four countries including Australia and Canada. The initial format was heavily instructional with no time limit to the race which carried on into early hours of the next morning, encouraging restructuring of the race for subsequent years.

Ledrick moved to Ohio in 2002 and established the Midwest MedWAR with faculty support from Mike Omori. The students at MCG continued the Southeast MedWAR with Caudell’s oversight and faculty support from Hartmut Gross and, in recent years, Taylor Haston who has also served as oversight faculty with Caudell for the newer EMRA races.

As more racers and volunteers participated in MedWAR events, more interest developed to expand the race series. More of this early history is outlined in Auerbach’s Wilderness Medicine 7th Edition. With Ledrick and Caudell in separate regions, the duo agreed on the need to develop a foundation to maintain the quality and integrity of the MedWAR curriculum early to support the demand for expansion races. They created the non-profit North American Educational Adventure Racing (NAEAR), formalized the curriculum and mission, and trademarked “MedWAR” in 2003. A few years later Hillary Irons joined NAEAR as Expansion Director to support the continued growth and development of new races.

Irons completed the MD PhD program at MCG, during which time she was part of the student leadership for the early SE races. Due to the structured student leadership, Irons was unable to continue in the student race director role, but desired to remain involved in MedWAR, so she joined NAEAR and worked with Caudell and Ledrick to support the growth and continuity of the MedWAR Challenges across the continent. Irons left Georgia after medical school, completed an emergency medicine residency in Michigan, then relocated to New England for a wilderness medicine fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital and has remained in Massachusetts as faculty at UMass while overseeing her own expansion race, the Massachusetts MedWAR.

Michael Caudell, MD, FAWM

Dr. Michael Caudell is a Clinical Professor of Emergency Medicine at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University, where he formerly served as the Medical Director for Wilderness &  Survival Medicine and was the founder of the Wilderness Medicine Fellowship. Dr. Caudell is one of the founders of MedWAR (Medical Wilderness Adventure Race), serves as the Executive Director for the annual Southeast Race and serves on the Board of Directors for the North American Educational Adventure Racing (NAEAR). He is a Past Chair of the American College of Emergency Physicians’ Wilderness Medicine Section and  Past Chair of the Fellowship Directors Committee. Dr. Caudell served 2 terms on the Board of Directors for the Wilderness Medical Society (WMS) and is also a former chair of the WMS Education Committee. He remains active in the WMS, as Course Director for AWLS pre-conferences, Co-Chair of the Practice Guidelines Committee, and as a member of the Education Committee and its GME Fellowship subcommittee. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Wilderness Medicine (FAWM). Dr. Caudell is Past President and has served on the Board of Directors for the Appalachian Center for Wilderness Medicine (ACWM).  He has earned his Diploma in Mountain Medicine (DiMM) along with certifications in Level I Swiftwater Rescue, SCUBA Advanced Open Water, Mixed Gas and Rescue Diving. 

David Ledrick, MD

Dr. Dave Ledrick was one of the founders and creators of MedWAR, and established the Midwest MedWAR in 2002, has continued to oversee the annual Midwest MedWAR, and provides guidance and support to other MedWAR races as a member of NAEAR. Dr. Ledrick is the Associate Residency Director and Clinical Clerkship Director in Dept. of EM, Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center, Toledo, OH. He is also the President and founder of North American Educational Adventure Racing. His hobbies include; swimming, Tae Kwon Do, and cycling.

Hillary Irons, MD, PhD, FACEP

Dr. Hillary Irons is an Assistant Professor in Emergency Medicine at University of Massachusetts. She received her MD from Medical College of Georgia, PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Georgia Tech and Emory, and completed EM residency at Michigan State University/Sparrow Hospital in Lansing, Michigan. She completed a Wilderness Medicine Fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital during which she spent a season working at the Himalayan Rescue Association in the Everest Region in Nepal, trip physician to the Siberian arctic, and doing multiple research projects on altitude illness. She has taught wilderness medicine for many years both with lectures, hands-on courses including AWLS, and simulation-based teaching. She is also the Expansion Race Coordinator for MedWAR (Medical Wilderness Adventure Races) which teaches and tests wilderness medicine through scenario-based adventure races since 2003. She has held national leadership positions in SAEM’s wilderness medicine interest group and ACEP wilderness medicine section. Her current research involves the cognitive deficits in hypoxic brain states specifically acute mountain illness and traumatic brain injury. She has current grant funding from the Wilderness Medical Society focusing on quantifying the cognitive impairment in altitude illness in Everest Region, Nepal. 

Cassie Lowry, DO, FAWM

Dr. Lowry is a graduate from Pacific Northwest University, Montana Family Medicine Residency in Billings, MT, and a current Fellow of Wilderness Medicine. She joined the MedWAR team in 2018 to assist with race director coordination, design, and administration. She's currently an Urgent Care physician for Kaiser Permanente in San Diego, CA. Her roots in wilderness medicine started as a Wilderness EMT with search & rescue and ski patrol prior to medical school, both of which she’s continued through medical school and into residency. She is a co-founder of the Northwest Wilderness Medicine Conference, Pacific Northwest Wilderness Medicine, and the Northwest MedWAR. As Chair of the Wilderness Medical Society Search & Rescue Committee, Cassie continues to study, research, and teach topics in clinical prehospital care in remote settings with a focus on altitude medicine, hypothermia, and climbing injuries. She spends much of her spare time with friends traveling, skiing, climbing, and mountaineering.