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I usually carry a first aid kit with me on the trail. I was trying to figure out if I carry too much or too little. Those of you that carry a first aid kit:
What is included in your kit?
What do you regularly use from it?

My "kit" goes something like this:
- 1" roll of medical tape
- Extra valve for my camelbak
- Iodine tablets
- Small container of ointment
- 2"x3" mirror
- Trioxane tablets
- Bic lighter
- Small whistle
- Space Blanket
- Small container ibueprofen
- Several small cable ties
- 2 needles (small and large) pre-threaded
- 10' parachute chord
- Small screwdriver (I wear glasses)
- Mini LED
- Unbreakable Comb (cactus ya' know)
- Small folding knife
- Small folding scissors
- Small tweezers
- Iodine Swabs (the kind that come in the little cotton topped vial)
- 2"x3" mirror
- Small magnifying glass
- Roll of gauze and a few gauze pads

All this fits into a 7"x 4"x 2.5" bag. I always keep several safety pins on the outside of the bag (one of them holds the mini LED, so I can find it...) Sewn onto the bag are a variety of spare buttons. This bag always goes into my pack (either day or overnight) this is really more of a "survival kit" than a first aid kit, but I figure you can't be over-prepared. In addition to this I always have about 20' of 1" webbing, a few cliff bars, TP, a disposable poncho, and a map and compass.

The things I use most are the tweezers and comb (as much as I try to avoid the cactus, it inevitably gets stuck in me or someone in my group). Other than that, the tape or the ibuprofen would have to be next on the list of "most used". In reality though, these are all the things that I hope to never use...

Matt has a great list. The only think I'd add is this tape like stuff that works without any adhesive. I've heard it called vet wrap before because they use it to wrap wounds on hairy animals (rather then ripping all the hair out or shaving). It works great and has a million uses. Duct tape isn't a bad thing to carry also.

Matt - No band-aids or moleskin?

Daryl - Is that Vet tape similar to pre-wrap athletes use?

I think that "Vet tape" you are talking about is called Coban here in the hospital. Does anyone going to four peaks need some?

I think a good idea for us aging men- and often overlooked is to carry an aspirin to chew if you have chest pain- I mean old out of shape dudes going out into the woods with packs on-That's just begging for a heart attack.

Matt's list is why I like to hike with him

Yep, I get mine at a sporting good store.

My thoughts: if the cut is minor enough for a band aid to take care of it, it probably doesn't need to be covered. If it needs to be covered, gauze and a wrap work better then a band aid anyway. As for moleskin, with comfortable shoes you don't need it. Waxy stuff like chapstick or stick deoderant work quite well for that too.

By the way, if I were doing 4 peaks with you guys I'd leave my first aid kit at home and stay close to Matt.

I dont think Matt is going

Actually, as of now, I am still in for four peaks. I'm considering bringing the big packpack along (to leave in the jeep) with a sleeping bag, t-rest, and other warm stuff. I'm thinking that given the length of the trip and the weather conditions (especially at that altitude) that hypothermia could be an issue if someone were to be injured or didn't make it out until well after dark.


I don't use band-aids, I think if its small enough for one, its better to just let it bleed. I do need to get my hands on some of that no-stick tape though. I have never had a problem with blisters so I just stopped carrying moleskin. On the dutchman hike though one part of my foot did get pretty hot, I stuck a bunch of that tape over it and had no more problems. One thing I think I left out of the list is chapstick. I carry around one of the military issue hot weather chapsticks. I've never used it (frankly I hate the stuff and have never had painfully chapped lips so...) but I carry it around anyway. (actually, pete, on that tonto trip I did wish I had some chapstick at the end of the third day, but I would have put it on the tips of my fingers. After the two days of scrambling over hot river-bed rocks my fingers were starting to crack. thats why I stuck that tube in there in the first place.)

I have myself one of them store bought little first-aid kits I purchased at Populars. The only thing I added to it is tweezers.

I have basically all of the BLS stuff I've been able to get my hands on, aside from CPR equipment.

My kit=
a couple rolls of tape
a bunch of alcohol preps
nitrile gloves
gauze rolls
EMT shears
4x4 gauze pads
medicine: aleve, excedrin, tylenol
various bandaid sizes
neosporin
paracord
a sharpie

I carry a beefed-up WEMT bag. It's really there for my own sense of security than for anything more, but you never know what kind of severely dehydrated yahoo might stumble your way...

last time I carried first aid kit was when it was a mandatory check in item for entering the Texas Water Safari... I painted a red cross on a can of Coors... got a smile from the race official (and a check off...) and a large cheer from the surrounding crowd...

Jeff MacE wrote:I carry a beefed-up WEMT bag. It's really there for my own sense of security than for anything more, but you never know what kind of severely dehydrated yahoo might stumble your way...

I have been looking to get some WEMT training. I'm currently an EMT-B, so everything I was taught is designed to keep someone alive during the 10 minutes it will take to get them to the hospital in a city. I'm sure it's a different game when you are treating in the wilderness.

imike wrote:last time I carried first aid kit was when it was a mandatory check in item for entering the Texas Water Safari... I painted a red cross on a can of Coors... got a smile from the race official (and a check off...) and a large cheer from the surrounding crowd...

Hahaha. I think we might be related.

Teebor wrote:

Jeff MacE wrote:I carry a beefed-up WEMT bag. It's really there for my own sense of security than for anything more, but you never know what kind of severely dehydrated yahoo might stumble your way...

I have been looking to get some WEMT training. I'm currently an EMT-B, so everything I was taught is designed to keep someone alive during the 10 minutes it will take to get them to the hospital in a city. I'm sure it's a different game when you are treating in the wilderness.

Just make sure you do the NOLS or SOLO wilderness upgrade. This is one of the few times I will emphatically say that the others offering the course are not up to par in any way. Having prehospital helps, too; in fact, it's really critical if you want to be taken seriously by other medical pros. Nothing is worse than someone who takes the EMT+WUMP combined course over a few weeks one summer while living on a trust fund and then thinks that he or she can go and work a rig.

The Wilderness Advanced Life Support class is actually a little better simply because it gives higher providers an opportunity to modify certain protocols in a way that could actually provide meaningful life support until rescue or evac can be undertaken. Basics can't provide immediately definitive care for dehydration in AZ without additional certification so that ties your hands when this is the number one issue in and around Tucson (And probably Phoenix) in the wild.

One thing to note: This is all *new* ground. It varies by state and by instructor. Example: I was at a wildland fire medic training event and had a brain-trust paramedic swear to me that he saved a diabetic who was in coma and CTD by supplying glucose rectally on some crag face somewhere in CA when he didn't have IV glucose available. You run into a lot of these self-acclaimed heroes at training like this, unfortunately. Just be prepared...

Matt - looks like you have a combined First Aid Kit and Survival Kit. I split these into two different waterproof Sea to Summit Bags. My first aid kit is in a red bag, my survival kit is in a green bag. The weakness I see in Matt's kit is no gloves. In today's day and age, BSI (Body Substance Isolation) is critically important.

I have a smaller First Aid kit for when I'm solo and a larger kit for when I'm with a group. Between Matt's list and Teebor's list I think a hiker can get a good First Aid Kit built.

I also carry some Benedryl and some ziploc bags.
I carry a Sharpie and some waterproof note paper for SOAP notes. It's not just what you carry, it's what you know how to do when a situation confronts you.
I usually carry a small Z-Rest sitting pad that would serve as an environmental barrier in a first aid situation.
I always carry a bandana and it would be enlisted as needed.

In my larger kit I have a Sam Splint and lots of stuff. I can't even think of everything in there off the top of my head.
I'll start putting together a list of what I carry and post it in the next couple of weeks. :stretch:

Al, good timing as I'm mentoring a few new hikers and this is subject we've not yet covered other than to say "you need to carry a first aid kit". Look forward to others listing what they carry.

I'm a WFR, so dittos with Al. A syringe that can be used to clean wounds. Antibiotic ointment. Tweezers, scissors, gauze pads and a roll of gauze. Tape. Eyedrops. Small wire splint or SAM splint. That is for my bigger one, anyway.

Sun Ray wrote:Look forward to others listing what they carry

my take is this: band-aids are pointless.. a small cut wont need one and a large cut cant use one.

that being said, this is my small kit for my personal use (it wont save some hiker who has just gone into coma)

0.5 fl oz of hand sanitizer, denat. alcohol
0.3 fl oz bottle of Dr. Bronner's castile soap
5' of waxed dental floss (thread)
spare headlamp coincells
fire steel
MicroPur chlorine dioxide tablets
0.5 fl oz of 100% deet
tiny pushbutton LED
mini Bic
vitamin I, benadryl and zyrtec in gumball machine container *virtually watertight, very compact and FREE
a tiny pencil eraser shaped like a decorated christmas tree put in my bag by my 2yo daughter.

things considered "safety items" that are not in the bag:
bandanna
"gorilla" brand duct tape on water bottle (3')
amsteel cord (20' on hammock suspension) same size as paracord, 4x stronger and weighs less
neck knife (buck hartsook) and fox 30 whistle on lanyard
carbon fiber hiking poles (bottom section works as splint for leg or arm-see duct tape)
the silnylon goody bag can actually be used for various tasks

te-wa wrote:vitamin I,

Great list. Vitamin I? Ibuprofen? immodium? I carry both

te-wa wrote:amsteel cord (20' on hammock suspension) same size as paracord, 4x stronger and weighs less

Where do you get this?

one of the hammock guys sells it here: http://arrowheadequipment.webs.com/apps ... ow/1076490
or http://www.whoopieslings.com
or many online Marine stores.

this is tuff, tuff stuff Al.