I would like your help in identifying the components needed in a rescue kit intended for a non- life threatening emergency.

Our Scout troop is preparing for a 2 week hike in a national park next summer. We bought a SPOT tracker to send on the prep hikes that are occuring monthly until then. Eventually the SPOT tracker will be used on the 2 week outing. Only adult leaders will have access to the SPOT.

The SPOT unit provides an ability to send check-in notices via satellite to email/SMS cell phone addresses. It will also allow tracking of our hike, with automatic position reports every 10 minutes or so.

There is also the ability to send 2 types of distress messages. The '911' message alerts SAR. I have added labels to the device indicating that the 911 button is to be used ONLY in the case of a life threatening emergency. Pressing the 911 button will bring professional rescuers in a 'relatively' short period. However, rescuers may put themselves at risk to provide the assistance, and invoking SAR may have financial implications. We don't want the Scouters using this casually.

There is another button which sends a HELP notification to a pre-selected list of email and Cell phone SMS message addresses. This area is open to interpretation of the user, and is the subject of my post.

Before every hike, a hiking plan is to be sent to the notification group. When a HELP request is sent, a group of local (adult) Scouters will make contact with the hiking group using the coordinates provided by the tracker. Since the tracker only provides an alert (no text description of the type of problem) the support group will have no indication of the issue encountered.

The problem may be as simple as one member being ill or slightly injured and needing to be transported off the trail. If the group is mobile, they will be instructed to repeat the HELP request as they move toward their intended take-out location. If the group is immobile, they will be instructed to repeat the HELP request multiple times from the same location. Depending on the location of the group, it might take many hours or a day to reach their location from the nearest takeout point.

What we need to do is to assemble an all-purpose rescue kit that would suffice to address a less-than-life-threatening emergency. Since this is a Scout group, we have to consider the possibility that the emergency involves some unrelated person or group the Scouts found while on their hike.

In addition to personal gear (pack/tent/sleeping bag/food/water/knife/personal FAK) we will need to identify any additional gear that could be useful in an unspecified emergency. Some things that come to mind are:
- ropes/harnesses/pulleys to be used for raising a stranded / fallen hiker.
- extra water
- advanced first aid kit
- fabric stretcher to transport a hiker

What else should we include? We need to consider weight, since we will have to hike in and out with whatever we bring. The hikers will already have their personal gear, but it is possible that some key piece of gear has been lost, food taken by a bear, etc.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.