To jump in - it only has to happen once... I took a simple, silly little fall in the mountains several years ago and seriously damaged my strong hand wrist (broken bone and extreme sprain). There was absolutely no way I could use my right hand for anything more than hanging a mitten on - it wasn't the pain; I could live with that. It simply would not work. I was with my sons; they took care of things. As it was, I could have managed fine because of what I had on me, but if a task had required me to use two hands, I would have been in some difficulty.

It has taken years of fending off the orthopedic surgeons to get this back to full function, but the important thing is that it really was not a serious fall - except for the incapacitation of my wrist/hand.

Spend enough time in rugged terrain and some mishap will sneak up on most folks (hehehe - or mishaps, in my case). I sincerely hope that never happens to you. <shrug> I don't think it's worth obsessing over - I think people who hang out here are probably pretty capable of improvising to meet the situation, whether they give themselves credit for that or not.

I agree that it's not the most important thing to "prepare" for - otoh, if a regularly carried/used device can also cover that situation, have at it.

Tom