You have to understand that he is hiking, not focused on survival in an unplanned emergency. He is traveling through known territory and is very familiar with the terrain, conditions, and how both he and his gear function. He seems to be spending most trips well below the tree line and in fairly close proximity to developed areas. It is increasingly difficult to find a trail that isn't a five mile hike to civilization if your familiar with the area and know which way to go. The ability to move fast and cover ground rapidly unburdened by excess gear and the relative closeness of settlements is highly conducive to self-rescue.

It is also likely that he is so used to being near the edge, and unburdened by a gewgaw for every situation, that he will hike out of the situation before he sees it as an emergency rather than need rescue.

I think you greatly underestimating how various pieces of gear change your odds. A FAK is, the vast majority of them in the vast majority of serious situations, useless. Mostly the bandaids get used. I have and usually do carry one, depends on the situation, but it has to be noted that the bandanna and tape and other gear he has can work quite well in the majority of situations. Most camping injuries are minor cuts and burns (far fewer of the later if you don't have a fire), minor discomforts that aren't going to kill you, like most diarrhea and sunburn, or so serious that you really would be far smarter to call for help instead of playing doctor. About the only thing in your FAK that can't be easily improvised are the drugs and those, in small quantities, are unlikely to violate his pack light philosophy. Four Imodium, a half dozen Ibuprofen and a half dozen Benadryl don't weigh much.

I would add a mini-Bic and a tiny knife to his list, he does mention them, but I realize that a fire isn't often even an amenity when hiking and once your gear has been fine tuned over many weeks of heavy use the knife isn't going to get much use. I tend to want to tinker and make stuff in and around camp and both the lighter and knife would earn their keep just keeping me entertained.

But, as I started, you have to keep in mind this is not a survival situation for him like camping is for so many. This is his environment. He is like a fish at sea.

When I drive to the store it's a well travelled route through known territory where I know the terrain and conditions and yet I still carry tools and a spare tire. LOL

As a member of the ETS community and thinking as one who tends to study and talk about the topics we do, I don't agree with his conclusions. No big deal. If I saw him crumpled on the trail I'd offer him the use of my FAK and lend a hand. I'd probably be a jerk about it the whole time too. You know, ask him if he'd like me to drag him back to civilization in his sleeping bag greased by his deoderant to reduce the friction.

"Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want." -- Pat Rogers

On a similar note, I remember a post here on the ETS forums that discussed one Ultra-light Hiker's article where he mentioned that he didn't carry a FAK because they weighed too much and because other hikers on the trail would have one.

I don't know if this and other weight saving ideas are commonplace among the ultra-light hiker community, but it burns my bacon to think that they're putting the onus on others because extra weight will affect the expediency of their trip.

I bet stopping to help them would affect the enjoyment of my trip, and yet I'd still do it.

I may be a wild eyed, foaming at the mouth FAK fanatic because I think that having some sort of FAK in almost any environment is a good idea. I totally agree with you that the majority of situations can be handled with no more than a bandaid. In fact, when I was safety officer for my office, I made sure there was a box of bandaids and a bottle of aspirin adjacent to each FAK, so that the more serious components in the kit would not be messed up by people foraging for the means to take care of their hangovers and minor owwies.

Still, there are those other occasions. The plumber next door falling off the roof, lying prostrate in a pool of blood; the fellow office worker in a grand mal seizure on an otherwise normal Saturday afternoon; the poorly supervised worker who got tangled up with a Bobcat(small loader type vehicle) and broke his leg. These all happened in an urban environment and competent aid was just a 911 away, but even in these situations, good first aid principles needed to be applied promptly (isn't that why they call it first aid?). A point that has been made many times is that training is the most important element in the "kit." Good training generally keeps from doing unwise and damaging procedures, like improper and unnecessary moving, proper assessing of the ABCs, etc.

A former girl friend was halfway through a CPR course and shopping for groceries, when a fellow shopper collapsed unconscious right next to her. You just just never know.....

Getting into the woods, it really does become a little dicier, even if you are only "five miles from town," although here again, most of the situations can be handled with a bandaid. Not all however. There was the climber we encountered who had taken a fist sized rock right in the middle of his forehead (fortunately he was wearing a helmet). This encounter seriously altered our schedule for that day, since we were about fifty miles from town.

I, personally, have frequently bandaged up a "tweaked" knee or ankle on both myself or a companion in order to hobble back to the car which is one reason I am a particular fan of elastic bandages. I recall one trip to Rainbow Bridge years ago when all six Ace bandages in the party were holding a joint together. We were a good hundred miles from a town on that occasion.

I am sure my attitude toward emergency preparedness has been colored by my SAR experiences, but I have seen too many situations where something like a lousy match and a handful of tinder would have made all the difference in the world and lives would have definitely been saved.

Too many of these episodes start out with "I had no intention of walking so far," "getting onto that high cliff," "fording that stream - it seemed so shallow" sort of statements. I have been particularly impressed with the number of times that building a fire and even minimal first aid knowledge would have made a difference in survival.

Distance from town really isn't that incredibly significant. Of course, the further out you are, the more likely it is that assistance will be lacking, or at least delayed for an unknown period. The question is, when a emergency arrives, are you going to start dealing with it right now, or are you going to be dependent on the actions and abilities of others to get out of the scrape? Are you relatively self reliant or just another bird sitting on the wire?

By the way, I don't want to make too much of self reliance. There are limits. In both of the cases of the plumber and fellow worker cited above, I was very impressed with the speedy and competent response by the local emergency medical system (FD). It is great to have those folks around, but what do you do when they are delayed or unavailable?

Just to take a far out hypothetical example, presume we had a magnitude 7.0 earthquake here in SoCal, and perhaps, just perhaps, the paramedic might need more than five minutes to respond to my broken arm? What then?

Depending on the severity of the UL illness, a FAK would be as small as bandaids, some GI distress tabs and Advil or Tylenol.

Most UL hikers when they are in that mode, have a steady resupply of gear through the mail. They have their support team mailing packages to them while enroute or they mail ahead all the supplies they need for the next section but not the current. Also UL hikers tend to hit a town every 4-5 days at most to get their supplies and will stay in town an extra day to recover. So its easy to fix any medical condition and Charlie Mike (Continue Mission).

This is a different mindset from preparedness minded folk who by nature predict the necessity of gear otherwise forgotten. I am trying to blend the two with interesting results.

As a beginning course on backpacking like this man teaches I personally would never endorse the RayWay right off the bat. But that is me. I have the person invest in good gear that is off-the-rack and stupid proof, not homemade. This person is telling a newbie to eschew a tent for a tarp? If I took his course w/ what I know, I'd challenge that advice for a new person.

That is why deoderant is critical for him. Personally, I'd rather be little gymmie but have happy feet and a mouth that doesn't feel like it was used by a wolf pack as a latrine. But he makes comments about hitting up OutBack and getting pizza.

Sorry, uh, no. If I wanted that, I'd "camp" in the the backyard.

That is why deoderant is critical for him.

that's funny.

"You have to understand that he is hiking, not focused on survival in an unplanned emergency... he will hike out of the situation before he sees it as an emergency rather than need rescue."

I'll bet that is the 'plan' for every UL hiker whose body they haven't found yet. How's the search for those last two missing on Mt. Hood?

Deodorant but no soap - dumb and careless.

No knife or lighter - past dumb.

He usually wears a cheap pair of nylon running shorts usually... in the cold and in the desert, and walks in the snow wearing sneakers -- it seems we've read about people like this before. Very good, Class, now how do you spell 'hypothermia'?

No real flashlight, but he hikes the mountains at night...

This guy is 'light' all right, can you guess where?

Yes, he's one of those who has never had much of a problem on a hike, so he thinks he will NEVER have a problem on a hike.

And I'll bet he carries a cell phone or PLB so he can scream for help should the need arise.

Pfffft!

Sue

Very good and thought provoking post, Art_in_FL

From the wording in the article it is pretty evident that this guy a) often hikes with others, b) hikes on trails with a lot of traffic. These hikers take full advantage of the fact that there is safety in numbers. This forum doesn't really approve because you a) can't really guarantee any "numbers" of hikers when you really need them, and b) what if you deliberately or by mistake take the path less traveled? Even if we really don't like it we should acknowledge that the number of hikers on these trails is a significant safety factor.


Another aspect that is just as important: These UL hikers are already equipped with warm shelters (hopefully they're warm enough) and the ability to procure water. If something bad happens they can hunker down in their sleeping bag under their tarp and stay there. Though I would like to see some fire making abilities (to dry equipment, get a warm drink and so on) their sleeping system is plenty warm enough (hopefully with some margin for colder weather...). An UL hiker is a hundred times better prepared for, well - anything - than your average day hiker.


There are actually very small changes required to make me happy with the described UL setup:

- A game plan with some responsible friends or relatives. (If I'm not in town X by Tuesday, I'm stuck with a problem somewhere along tray Y).

- Just a tiny wee bit more in the first aid department. (Bandaid/steri strips, some sterile pads or equivalent, pain killers).

- Some repair goodies: A sewing kit, zip ties? Cordage, strong 2mm nylon line is OK for most tasks. He already carries duct tape.

- A tiny wee more "wilderness camping" capabilities: Knife, fire making items, a titanium cup (it'll have to do as pot).

- Signalling: Whistle, signaling mirror. Bright pieces of clothing/equipment.

- Navigation: A small button compass.

Those items add perhaps a pound or so, but makes a huge difference when the unexpected happens at the worst possible moment.