Ten Essentials

By Jon Dorn
Excerpted from BACKPACKER, MAY 1997

They may be small, but these items can make a huge difference on the trail.

Equipped with the items here and, even more important, the knowledge of how to use them properly, you can avoid or survive virtually any mishap.

Here are the items we recommend as belonging in EVERY pack.

1. Map. Stories abound of lost hikers who could have avoided their predicament by consulting a simple trail map. Wandering for hours or days, these clueless campers turn up cold, tired, hungry and dehydrated or worse. With an up-to-date topographic map and some basic map reading experience, you can judge distances, find cutoffs, and distinguish end-to-end trails from loops.
2. Compass. Rescuers have countless tales of hikers who blunder off well-traveled, clearly marked paths. In tandem with a good map and orienteering skills, a compass will help guide you out of dense thickets, through featureless winter landscapes, and across untracked tundra. Even if you’re just confused, with a map and compass you can pinpoint your current location and determine the direction of the trail.
3. Flashlight with extra batteries and bulb. Fetching hapless, lampless hikers from moonlit mountain ridges and out of ravines keeps rescue rangers in business. John Sanders, search and rescue coordinator for the Appalachian Mountain Club, recently delivered a cell phone-toting hiker from a trail high in New Hampshire’s White Mountains. As he wryly notes, "A cell phone helps in some situations, but its LED readout isn’t bright enough to bring you down the mountain."
4. Extra Food. When accidents or natural events alter your itinerary, warns Turner, they also alter your meal plan. And while a growling stomach may be a great motivator, a calorie-starved body performs poorly in crisis situations. To stay warm, alert, and energized during the extra nights and days ahead, you’ll need additional fuel. Plan to carry at least one day’s worth of ready-to-eat high energy snacks, and increase your surplus for extended outings in remote situations.
5. Extra Clothing. Hypothermia sets in fast when you’re lost, lame, or soaking wet, so to ward off chilling winds and survive nights without shelter, hikers should keep one set of warm, weatherproof clothes in reserve. In mild climates, this might mean a synthetic base layer, pile sweater, and waterproof jacket. In harsher environments, you might need a backup down parka. The key is to create a versatile, cotton-free layering system that can withstand rapid changes in climate and activity levels.
6. Sunglasses. "Snowblindness is a debilitating condition," cautions Dr. Keith Conover, medical director of the Wilderness EMS Institute, based out of the Center for Emergency Medicine of Western Pennsylvania in Pittsburgh. "Your cornea looks and feels like its been sandpapered." People who frequent high places, like John Harlin, BACKPACKER’s Northwest Editor and veteran mountaineer, swear by sunglasses that filter out those searing UV rays. "You come to snow that hasn’t melted out yet and those sunglasses suddenly save your eyes and your trip," he says. Look for shades that block 97 to 100 percent of UVA and UVB radiation.
7. First-aid kit. Imagine yourself descending an unfamiliar mountain as darkness falls. Your map, compass, and headlamp help you avoid a 500-foot cliff, but suddenly diarrhea strikes. You waste precious time in the bushes, cramps and dehydration sap your strength, and frostbite tickles your tush. That’s one scenario. The other is that at the first twinge of trouble down below, you grab the Imodium from your well-stocked medical kit and stay on the trail. Knowing how to use every item is also a must.
8. Pocketknife. Steve Costie, member services manager for The Mountaineers, quickly identifies several life-saving tasks that require a blade: cutting clothing to assess injuries or tape to dress wounds, punching holes to repair wind-wracked tents, and shaving branches to prepare kindling. We’re not talking about a 6-inch bear skinner or a tool with three screwdrivers. A small, sharp blade will do.
9. Matches in a waterproof container. The ability to melt snow for water, fix a hot meal, and even send smoke signals starts with reliable matches. In some situations, like a forced bivouac in a winter storm, starting a fire can literally mean the difference between life and death.
10. Fire Starter. Whether you pack a votive candle, priming paste, or dry tinder, a bit of easy-lighting fuel can jump-start a blaze and help you cope with the aftereffects of a plunge into icy waters or stove failure. One backcountry skier survived two nights with a broken kneecap because his makeshift fire helped forestall hypothermia.