From Mountains to Medicine with Jamie Barclay

In this episode we explore unconventional career paths into extreme medicine. Many people in extreme medicine have led extraordinary careers – and sometimes they have even led more than one extraordinary career. Most of us in extreme medicine start out in medicine as our primary career …..and then work to combine our passion for medicine with our passion for the extreme! Jamie flipped that idea on its head, starting out as a mountaineering instructor and later qualifying as a doctor following his experiences in the Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue Team.

Jamie is a mountaineering instructor, mountain rescue medical lead and doctor in North Wales. Jamie started out his career as a marine biologist, before qualifying as a mountaineering instructor, and going on to join Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue and discovering a passion for pre-hospital and emergency medicine. Following this he retrained as a doctor and continues to pursue an unconventional career path in North Wales as an anaesthetist with a passion for teaching and the outdoors!

World Extreme Medicine Podcast

We’re committed to ensuring extreme medicine education can reach all medical, healthcare and supporting professionals working in austere environments.

With regular updates, our team brings you the latest from across the broad spectrum of extreme medicine disciplines, including expedition, space, remote, pre-hospital and humanitarian medicine as well as a range of topics across performance and non-technical skills. Enhance your ability to tackle challenges with new skills you can take home or out into the field.

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• No. of episodes: 246
• Latest episode: 2025-08-05
• Education

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