Originally Posted By: chaosmagnet
Way too situational for a single answer.

If you're camping many miles from the nearest road, you may have nothing much more than an Altoids tin kit to supplement what you have in your backpack and your knife. If you're commuting by train, you may only have room to add a couple of pounds of gear to your laptop bag. If you're planning for a variety of different contingencies and weight isn't as important because your bag is in the trunk of your car or in your airplane, you may have 50 pounds or more of gear.


You're right. I was aiming mainly for something along the lines of a 72 hour bag for general survival conditions. It won't do you much good at the North pole, for example, but in many other situations, it may give you a good shot for short term survival.