This is a great discussion, thank you all. Six Amazon packages came today so it is coming together. Before I ship it out I'll take photos of the contents and will post those here. Will be a few more days.

The Mora knife is indeed a hand-me-down. In fact it is one of the "Light-my-Fire" versions that came out a few years ago and has a firesteel in the handle. Not a terribly robust blade but it's a stainless steel, lightweight, capable package. And it's paid for.... ;-)

As I envision her using this as a get-home bag, I imagine what she may encounter. I anticipate that she would happen upon situations in which other people will need help and she will want to be of assistance. Cutting seatbelts and clothing and providing bandages may well be part of that. The ability to write names/phone #s/e-mails may be part of that if someone stranded wants her to relay a message. Or if she wants them to relay a message for her.

I'm undecided on the compass question. Was looking at Suunto's more basic models. More important is the paper map. She'll be in familiar urban-suburban terrain and if Mt. Hood is visible she'll have at least rough bearings. Figured the button compass is super lightweight and better than nothing.

After she receives the bag I'm going to talk her through it. I'll encourage her to have such bags in her car and office. The little bag she has in her car now is winter-oriented.

In the "Really Big One" planners expect that two-thirds of the hospitals in western Oregon will be unusable. Hopefully my sister's will be in the other third.


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