About the Kane Schools

Founder/Director

Bill Kane, BA, NR AEMT, I/C NH & ME, WEMT

Bill Kane, working on the summit of Mt. Aconcagua, 22,839″, Argentina, 1989.​ Photo: Jerry Handren.

With a BA from Gettysburg College, he worked for the YMCA leading adventure trips and became the Physical/Aquatic Director and then the Camp Director.  In the mid-1970s he became manager of a climbing shop in Northern NE and joined the Mountain Rescue Service of NH in 1976 becoming a Director and Team Leader till the late 1990s.  As an EMT (now Advanced EMT) he began teaching EMTs and wilderness medicine and rescue in 1977.  Bill joined Fryeburg Rescue in 1978 and has practiced pre-hospital medicine in the mountains of rural Maine for over 40 years.  As an owner/partner of International Mountain Climbing School, and as Director of Education for a high-volume program, he’s had the opportunity to climb, guide, and teach on five continents and has competed in hundreds of endurance events over 40+ years.

  • ​Team Leader, Director, Former VP, Mountain Rescue Service, Inc. 1976-1998
  • Fryeburg Rescue, 1978-Present, Rural EMS in Western Maine
  • ​Licensed EMS Instructor/Coordinator NH & ME Since 1978
  • ​Licensed NR Advanced EMT ME & NH Since 1976
  • ​Founder, Former Pres., Outdoor Industry Assoc./Climbing Sports Group, 1987-97
  • ​President, Founding Member, New Hampshire Outdoor Council 1986-Present
  • ​Member, NHBEMS Education Advisory Cabinet, 2007-Present
  • EMS Educator of the Year, 2012 NH NC Council
  • Keynote Speaker, Mountain Rescue Association, Carefree, AZ, June 2013

Our Teachers

TKS teachers all have experience in the outdoors…they know how to take of themselves in the wild for weeks and months at a time.  Most have worked as Guides, Outdoor Educators, Land Managers (State and Federal), Soldiers, and SAR Team members.  Those who teach “licensing courses” like EMR/WFR, EMT/WEMT, and Advanced EMT have significant clinical experience as rescuers and EMS providers…they know the medicine, and the process, of the EMS system.

Whether it’s experiential wilderness principles or evidence-based medicine, all of our teachers know why they teach, what they teach…because they’ve done it.