I just want to correct one mistake I made above. I meant to say many UL ‘long distance’ hikers are professionals or at least semi pro.

Quote:
My outdoor experience, in a variety of venues and situations over the years, is that the "Ten Essentials" is a valid and useful concept. ETS provides masterful advice for anyone who wishes to follow this strategy. I feel uneasy about anyone who pares down the list excessively.


Your experience is yours alone. I know many sports climbers, speed climbers, multi pitch climbers and big wall climbers that climb all over the world and most do not carry anything they don't need. And, the kit they do need is often as light as possible. There are plenty of cases of big wall climbers tied into a ledge for the night wearing their belay jacket, half length sleeping bag and a bothy bag. Drinking powder drinks and eating food bars. The only first aid kit they carry is the stuff they need to patch up their fingers. No survival kit, no fire lighting kit, no signalling kit, just good planning and informing someone where they are going.

Do long distance runners carry a means to light fires and knives, no they don’t. I was a semi pro cyclist and cycled hundreds of miles a week in training alone did I or any other cyclists carry that kit. No. Nor do wild swimmers, orienteers, horse riders or most outdoor sports persons. That sort of kit only gets packed when there is a need for it on the whole. Many of the places I have hiked and climbed around the world I could not have had a fire because there was just no fuel.

The only time I carry a full first aid kit is when I am leading a group. If I am out by myself or with friends, I carry a role of vet wrap, a wad of gauze pads and some tape. This is a lot more versatile than standard band aids and bandages. Many mountain leaders in this country and in Europe will carry a role of cellophane in their minimal first aid kit.

If you go out by yourself, a first aid kit, other than for treating very basics injuries, is useless to you if the injury is too bad, shelter is more important than first aid. If you can’t get yourself out you need to provide yourself with shelter to help maintain your core body temperature. To put it in another way, our first aid kit can not treat a broken leg. Hypothermia is likely to kill you a lot faster than a broken leg ever will, unless there are other complications such as an internal bleed which your first aid kit can’t help with. Shelter is the priority.

Even when you are out in a group, what can you expect to do? Stabilize the casualty and preserve life. That person has a broken leg, you send someone to get help. You need to provide the casualty with shelter to help protect them from hypothermia. Once that is done you can start to think about traction and splinting, traction might be appropriate but you don’t need a first aid kit to do that nor for splinting. There is no need to splint if you are going to get medical attention on seen because they are always going to want to replace your work with professional equipment.

Notice I have not mentioned medication. Personal medication is each person’s responsibility and is not part of first aid training unless you have done some advanced first aid or medic training. And don’t tell me you live in a desert so hypothermia is not a problem. In major trauma cases out in Afstan casualties are wrapped against hypothermia.

This is all in the context of this tread. I agree in certain areas and survival situations weight is not an issue. BOB and first aid kits can be as elaborate as you like providing you are competent to use the items contained in it.

I have more than 20 years experience of the outdoors and survival and my kit is proportionate to the trip I am doing. I agree that the novice just starting out should take more precautions in kit than the more experienced and I know that trouble can strike anyone but I also recognise that there is only so much I can do before laying up in a shelter is my last option.

I also agree that the title of the article is misleading and damn right dangerous. And if that is the kit list for newcomers to hiking, then he is being woefully incompetent but cant that be said for some very established well known primitive survival schools that have not looked after their clients welfare?