The gear that gets you there.

Kit checklist

Field Notes

Real skills for when you are in the field.

Safety Essentials

First aid priorities for long trails

Fords, wildlife, first aid, and the moment you ask for help. Quiet decisions. No drama.

Wilderness medicine assumes help is hours or days away. The sequence matters more than the contents of the kit.

  1. Scene safety. Do not add a second patient.
  2. Stop life-threatening bleeding. Direct pressure first. Pack a wound. A tourniquet is for extremity bleeding you cannot stop.
  3. Prevent the next problem: hypothermia, heat, and shock. Pad from the ground. Wind off. Dry layer on.
  4. Then blisters, GI, and the slow injuries. Those end hikes. They rarely end people in the next ten minutes.

A 16-hour Wilderness First Aid course (NOLS or equivalent) is the highest-return skill investment for remote travel. The kit on your hip is not a substitute for that course.

NOLS Wilderness First Aid — 16 hours →

← Safety Essentials