HikingNewZealand.com Tip #8 – survival of the fittest

It pays to be prepared for a first aid situation when you're in the wilderness as you are often some distance from help. Here are some handy items to have:

At our recent staff training course, which focuses on risk management and wilderness first aid, it was again highlighted to me the things that I should always have in my pack that could be extremely useful or even life saving in an emergency situation in our back-county.

Aside from all the specialty survival and first aid equipment, personal locator beacons, etc that are available, there are other things that can be on your “essential items” list that will have uses beyond emergency situations, such as;

Closed cell foam mattress

Even if planning to stay in a hut, take one of these. Strap on to the bottom of your pack and it provides a great seat when you want to have a rest and in an emergency these are extremely useful for getting an injured person off the cold ground, they can also be used for immobilising joints eg broken arms and legs. Therma-rests work very well too.

Walking stick/pole

Not only does a stick or pole make walking easier, they are invaluable if you suddenly have to erect an emergency shelter or for making splints for fractures. Make sure you have at least two in your party. 

Lightweight fold-away saw

Handy for firewood collectingbut could also great if you find yourself hurriedly trying to build a shelter or once again –making a splint out of sticks!

Chocolate

Take a bar of chocolate and wrap it up in duct tape and keep it in the bottom of your pack, it will be there when you really need it and hopefully the duct tape will stop you munching on it when you don’t!

Sharp pocket knife

Not only makes chopping your salami and cheese easier, but vital for wilderness first aid eg making make shift bandages out of clothing, cutting bed rolls up etc

Duct tape

We all know how useful this stuff is, fixing gear, holding boots together, so it is bound to be useful in an emergency.

Neck brace template

This can be traced on to your bedroll and cut out in an emergency. Talk to St Johns or Redcross about getting a copy of the template.  

Spare clothes

Consider having a couple of spare polypro layers and hat that live in your pack for emergencies, never know when you might need them

Bandages/dressings

Are great things to have in your first aid kit, but in an emergency where someone has a major bleed you will be using anything you can get your hands on, cotton is much more absorbent than synthetics so consider having an old tee shirt or small towel for this possibility, you will find other uses for it  too.

Spare torch bulb and batteries

Goes without saying that these are useful items to have in your pack.

Pencil and paper

Keep them in a ziplock bag ready to record patient information in an emergency. If you can pass concise information onto the emergency services it makes their job that much easier.      

*There are bound to be lots of other useful items that should be on this list, but hopefully this can be of some use to get you started.

Hiking New Zealand and Active Earth New Zealand are all about taking small groups hiking and trekking around New Zealand. We get off the beaten track to many places in National Parks that no other companies (and few individuals) ever get to. Sometimes we stay in simple lodges with good facilities, but more often we sleep in mountain huts or bush-camp far away from civilisation.

Safe tramping