From remote mountaintops to urban emergency departments to combat zones, Jeff Evans embraces a “sherpa attitude” wherever he goes. The expert mountaineer and emergency physician assistant will share stories of his adventures during the Opening Session at Emergency Nursing 2025 in New Orleans, mingling in important lessons he learned about cultivating teamwork, managing adversity and communicating effectively.
Jeff Evans will deliver the keynote presentation at Emergency Nursing 2025, drawing on his mountain climbing adventures.
Evans gained renown for guiding his blind friend, Erik Weihenmayer, to the summit of Mount Everest in 2001. He served as chief medic for a search and rescue team in Nepal and attended to wounded soldiers and civilians in Iraq with a nongovernmental aid organization. Now Evans leads expeditions for veterans with disabilities through the No Barriers Warriors, a therapeutic program he co-founded with Weihenmayer.
When Evans talks about his adventures, he weaves in messages even people who don’t climb more than a flight of stairs can take to heart.
“It wasn’t about look what I did, look what we did, it was look how we did it,” Evans said. “This is the secret sauce. It turns out you can apply this to your own life professionally and personally.”
Raised in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina, Evans said he is restless by nature and happiest outdoors. He moved to Colorado as a young adult and fell in love with rock climbing and mountaineering.
As his climbing career ascended, Evans realized two things. First, to be a high-level guide, he needed to set himself apart from more talented climbers.
Jeff Evans gained renown for guiding his blind friend, Erik Weihenmayer, to the summit of Mount Everest in 2001.
“Also, there were my colleagues, my contemporaries, my mentors and my peers who were getting killed climbing,” he said. Learning emergency medical skills would enable him to stand out professionally and perhaps “to slip through the gantlet and keep climbing and not get smoked.”
Evans went back to school to become a physician assistant and spent 17 years in a Denver emergency department while continuing his career as a guide. He is looking forward to being among peers at Emergency Nursing 2025.
“I always tell people, the smartest people in health care are ICU nurses and emergency room nurses,” Evans said. “There have been so many times in my PA career in the emergency department where a nurse … literally kept me from making a catastrophic error.”
“I feel like the nurses in the emergency room specifically are the sherpas of the world,” he said.
Hear Jeff Evans preview his message for Emergency Nursing 2025 on the ENA Podcast.