How to Pack a Survival Kit for Any Kind of Trip
Anytime you enter the wilderness, you’re also entering some type of survival situation. Certain contingencies or emergencies don’t have a medical requirement while in the backcountry. For instances like these, you’ll need a pack of survival gear. Some items in your gear might be things you’re already used to using while in the backcountry, while some are more specific to emergencies.
Most backcountry enthusiasts understand the life support or survival aspects of their equipment and need to be proficient in using it when the time arrives. When you’re going into the woods or any other backcountry area, planning your items according to survival isn’t going to be too different from your usual hiking or backpacking planning requirements. Your survival and safety needs will fall into the following categories:
Navigation
Fire
Shelter
Food and water
First aid
Communications
These are some of the most consistent requirements; however, your geographic location, as well as the duration of your trip, will determine the importance of each. If you’re planning a week-long winter hike, shelter is going to be more important than finding water, while water is most important in a desert crossing.
Here’s all you need to know about packing a survival kit along with your ultralight hiking gear:
When would you need a survival kit?
A survival kit is meant for emergencies and unexpected occurrences in which you find yourself facing a direr situation than you had originally planned for. One example of this might be, going on a climb with a friend to a local mountain. The ten-mile trail is pretty easy, and you’ve done it before. The weather is warm, and the forecast looks good, but around halfway through, your friend trips over a rock and sprains their ankle—walking is now too painful.
You made plans ahead of time—you know where the ranger station is located, and you have their number, but your phone isn’t working because it got drenched when you were filling your water bottle up in the stream. Your friend left their phone behind because they didn’t think they’d have service all the way up here.
It’s starting to get dark, and there aren’t too many hikers left on the trail. Staying in the same spot until daylight might be the next best option. You can’t leave your friend alone! You might end up getting lost or injured if you went off looking for help by yourself as well.
First aid kit
Your friend has wrapped their ankle with an ace wrap in their first aid kit and taken some aspirins—you’ll need to stay warm; you don’t have a tent or sleeping bags; how will you survive the night? You remember you’re wearing wool hats, rain jackets, and fleece tops—those technically count as shelter!
Guiding light
You think of building a fire to stay warm, and someone might see it and send help as well! You remember backing bouillon cubes in your backpack, so you can make some soup for yourself and your friend. As it gets darker, you pull out your headlamp and collect some firewood with the help of your Swiss Army knife.
Fire Starters and waterproof matches
You can use some fire starters from your survival kit, as well as some bark that you peeled with the help of your knife off a birch tree. Unfortunately, your butane lighter doesn’t have fuel—it was lying around in your backpack for so long that it broke. You can try to use a magnesium striker in your survival kit, but it is too difficult for you to figure it out. However, the small waterproof matches might just do the trick. You patiently let the fire get hotter and let the kindling ignite before adding longer, bigger pieces of firewood to the pile.
Water purifier
After a few hours, you have some hot broth to sip on for dinner. You use a water purifier to refill your water bottles from a nearby stream, so you don’t have to worry about hydration.
Rain gear
You have your down jacket on, and while it doesn’t seem like it’s going to rain tonight, you layer your rain jacket on to ward off the cold.
Before you head to sleep, you boil one more cup of water and pour it into a Nalgene bottle before placing it between your fleece and down jacket. You’re able to doze off with the help of the additional warmth, and you’re going to be much better prepared for the next hiking trip.
By the time the sun rises, the rangers have discovered your location and have rescued you and your friend.
It’s important to use more than just a high-quality survival kit—you need to practice common sense and effective planning and have enough experience to have a safe journey.
How to carry your survival kit?
It’s essential for you to understand that a lot of your gear can be turned into survival gear under the right—or wrong—circumstances. Don’t split your survival gear up; you never know when you might end up by yourself. Everyone needs to carry their own survival gear and first aid kit, as well as a portable stove, pot, and fuel if you’re planning on hiking in a cold environment.
Some survival items you will be using throughout the backcountry include your clothing and water bottle. Some items might take on a life support role according to the environment and weather. Here are some extra survival items that you can pack away in case of contingencies:
Cash
Energy bars and bouillon cubes
Emergency flares
Space blanket
Small candles
Extra batteries
Duct tape
Paracord
Sewing kit
Compass
Start shopping for essential gear today
It’s important to get high-quality items that you can rely on to last you a while and not leave you stranded. Light Hiking Gear has an incredible collection of top-notch camping gear such as camping socks, Aarn guiding light, bear canister holders, and more that can help you start making your very own survival kit. The online retail outlet specializes in camping, hiking, and backpacking gear, and its goal is to help people who are passionate about the outdoors on their journeys.
Have more questions? Drop them a message.
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