Tip #2 Comfortable and safe are vital!
Tip #2 Comfortable and safe are vital!
Comfortable and safe are vital! Anyone can go out into the mountains with a tiny amount of gear and suffer — you need to be warm, well-fed and ready to deal with safety issues. Ultralight camping should be delightful, not stressful. The challenge is to succeed with only the gear that’s absolutely needed.
The first-aid kit is a good metaphor for your lightweight camping mind-set. It would be foolish to travel without one, right? But what is truly required? What can you effectively improvise? There is a blurry line between TOO heavy and TOO light. You can still go out in the backcountry with a very light pack and be comfortable and safe (see tip 55).
Excerpt from Ultralight Backpackin’ Tips by Mike Clelland
So what's in your first aid kit?
I actually beefed mine up in some ways (and pared it down in others) from a pre-made kit. I focused on things that are most likely to screw me up, like abrasions, blisters, thorns, and repetitive stress injuries, and altitude sickness. So I have a lot of ibuprofen and Tylenol, leukotape on release papers, good small scissors and tweezers, and blister bandages and band aids. Being a woman, I also packed meds for UTI and yeast infections, totally not included in any med kit commercially. Gloves? Gone. Irrigation syringe? Gone. Useless plastic tweezers? Gone.
I actually beefed mine up in some ways (and pared it down in others)
That sounds right, adapating it to your actual needs! 😀
About 5 years ago my first aid kit was a gallon ziploc my partner prepared. It had boxes of band-aids, bottles of pills, bags of lozenges, multiple packs of moleskin, a fabric bandage, rolls of tape, a roll of antacid, etc. Whenever we would go on a hike, short or long, we’d pack it automatically. It weighed well over a lb and after reviewing it critically I realized there was lots of duplication and that I didn’t know what some of it was even for. I’ve managed to downsize that thing to a quart-size ziploc for use as a couple, but when I go solo I carry 20 ibuprofen, 3 Sudafed, 2 Loperamide and tweezers in a tiny baggie. I also carry a patch or 2 of leukotape, a needle, floss and mini scissors and one Ibuprofen PM per night. In the last 3 years I’ve used all of it at least once except the Sudafed and Loperamide (🤞). Additional risk mitigation is choosing the right trips at the right time of year and appropriate preparation.