Hey, I just found a contest at Backpacker magazine's website. They ask the question "What one piece of gear would you choose if you were stranded in the mountains?" They list 6 items to choose from. You also have space to tell them why you chose the item.

I know telling everyone here makes my chances of winning less. <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

BTW, I have no affiliation with Backpacker. I thought you may be interested.

Don't worry, I won't enter. Why not just play here? I'd pick the knife.

I got a bit skeptical of Backpacker magazine once when they recommended leaving first aid supplies behind to save weight. That doesn't sound like such a good idea, since most first aid stuff is so light to begin with.

What kind of mountain is it?

Completely snow covered high altitude stuff without a tree in sight?
Bitterly cold barren mountains, ala afganistan?
Heavily forrested mountains?

Regardless, I agree with Christina and say a good knife.

I did choose the knife.


I did not see the arctical you are talking about but I would agree that leaving behind the FAK is a bad idea!

My submission:

I can build a fire with a lighter that will also help keep me warm (sleeping bag), provide signal light (headlamp), and boil water (water filter). Since I'm "stranded," a compass will be of little use. While a knife is always a top contender for the "one piece of gear" question, its utility in this scenario is outweighed by that of the lighter.

I hit your link to the main website page and couldn't find anything about the contest. I probably overlooked it. Nonetheless it sure seems to me like a knife would be a no-brainer!

Sorry. It is under the title "It's Your Choice" Here is the direct link.

You could effectively develop the tools necessary to build a fire with the knife. I think the knife should be the basis for most scenarios. It is the hardest thing to duplicate in the field.

Dynamo,

You make a good point with the knife (pun intended), but I chose the lighter based on the scenario dreamed up by Backpacker Magazine: "Stranded in the mountains."

I take "stranded" to mean that I can't evacuate, which means that I must stay in place and await rescue. It also means that time is my enemy. Stressful, no?

So staying warm and hydrated while signaling for help would be my battle plan. With a lighter, I could start a signal fire asap--which will also keep me warm, give me light, and boil my water--instead of burning daylight trying to fashion a fire-making instrument from scratch with a knife, which could take a ham-fisted bonehead like me hours to do.

What exactly are you going to boil water in?

Burncycle:

Find a depression in a rock that holds water.

Put stones in fire to make them hot.

Take stones out of fire and place in depression that has water.

Keep repeating fire and dunking routine until water boils and continue until you feel safe with results.

If small enough pick up rock with water in it and drink, if rock too big or unwieldy, you can suck water up or dunk cloth into water and suck water out of cloth.

<img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />For posturing purposes in case someone of upper class or British heritage finds you, always have pinkie pointing out and up from hand when drinking water. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Bountyhunter <img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

I'm working on a crippled computer and can't open the link <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> Firstly, remember magazines survive by commercial advertising. I won't name names, it's pandemic to the media. But I dare say 'Stabbing times' knife mag will be biased in this essay, and further biased by advertisors. The parent company of Camillus submits more freebie units for review than some custom knifesmith. Are you really going to objectively critique a sleeping bag when they just bought a full page ad? As to the contest: I hate these exercises. There is no absolute correct answer, unless it's the 10 essentials at minimum. What if we are on a subarctic biosphere on this mountain? There are ranges that exhibit literally every clime on earth depending on altitude. A fuel rich level MIGHT indicate fire as our priority. Go a few hundred feet up and a sleeping bag on a freezing, windswept outcrop takes over. On the mountain approach maybe a compass can get us back if we took carefull notes of our inbound course. Some of the compasses have small magnifying surfaces on the baseplate, so we can make fire with that. See how the limits and capabilities can be stretched and fudged? We could very well find ourselves in the mountains with only a knife or the other items. The danger is in giving priority to only one. Eventually some ultralight ( in gear and thinking) hiker is going to take off with only a knife or lighter- and lose it under the same misfortune I'd lose 9 out of 10 essentials <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

UncleSteve,

Attention to detail is not my strong suit. <img src="/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

I see your reasoning. Good job at assessing the "situation".

I have to agree with Chris. I know that most of us can come up with many ways to use any of the listed items.

btw, I chose the knife too. You can make a dish from tree bark to boil water, as long as you do not get the flames above the water line.

I thought you Americans were all in favour of capitalism.

No, it doesn't come as a great shock that magazines survive by advertising, and sometimes that influences the content of their stories. The same can be said of newspapers - if your readership is primarily PHRASECENSOREDPOSTERSHOULDKNOWBETTER., and you start running editorials that are seen as pro-PHRASECENSOREDPOSTERSHOULDKNOWBETTER., you're going to lose business. Lose enough business and you go out of business. Sometimes this is the price of being true to your principles.

That being said, at least Backpacker acknowledges from time to time that the wilderness is a dangerous place for the unprepared (or, as we prefer to think of them, the terminally clueless). I haven't looked at many other outdoor magazines but I suspect many of them avoid any mention of the words "survival" or "stranded" lest it scare away potential customers. (Not the climbing magazines, because mountain climbers thrive on the notion that they're risking death with each step.)

Yeah, they've had some stupid advice from time to time. They also had a reasonably good (IMO) article by a female editor who took a survival course with Cody Lundin.

This contest is rather silly - if anybody rates a compass or water filter as being more important than either a knife or a lighter, then I'd have to say they're either being deliberately "creative" in order to win the contest, or they're - well, terminally clueless <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

But - and I think this is important - the exercise of coming up with a "winning answer" may just prompt some people to think twice about going for a day hike without ALL OF those six items. Remember, this contest is not necessarily aimed only at us die-hard mountain men and women, but at the Jo tourists who set off up the Matterhorn in a bathrobe and carpet slippers.

Ah crud, I knew that day would come back to haunt me. I didn't think anyone else was watching. I thought I was all alone! Gotta admit those fuzzy bunny slippers are cute though... right? <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

Brian:

For a long time I have suspected the reason for the lack of "loco weed" on the Texas roadsides was the result of DEA intervention, but now I see that yo'all have just been getting up earlier in the morning to chew on the stuff. <img src="/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Bountyhunter <img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />