When I go for a long day hike, and on ALL backpacking trips, I always take a first aid kit with me. In the past I always put together a quick homemade kit, and when I first saw an Adventure Medical Kit designed specifically for hikers, I just had to buy one and test it out!
The Adventure Medical Kits company puts together a variety of kits, ranging from small ultralight kits to the comprehensive guide kits such as the one the famous mountaineer Ed Viesturs uses.
This is the kit I prefer – Adventure Medical Kit: Adventurer Light and Fast First-Aid Kit.
It is a comprehensive first aid kit loaded with just the right amount of medical supplies for a long weekend trip. It is lightweight, but still has everything I would need for emergencies on the trail.
Since I love to be organized, I am impressed by how Adventure Medical separated the kit into 3 categories, making it much quicker for me to grab what I need when little emergencies happen on the trail.
- Wound Care/Sprain/Blister
- Bleeding
- Medical Instruments
There is an excellent book included in the kit called Wilderness and Travel Medicine, by Dr. Eric Weiss. I’ve taken Wilderness First Aid Classes and read this book, so sometimes I opt to leave it behind to save the extra ounces of weight, but otherwise I’d keep in it my kit. There are also handy reference cards (which I always keep in the kit) that explain the basics of what to do in common wilderness first aid situations.
My special tip: Toss it in a quart size ziploc bag before you put it in your backpack. I had some wet bandaids after my CamelBak leaked a bit inside my pack.
Every first aid kit needs at least a bit of modification – check out what I add to my Adventurer Light & Fast Kit, and what I keep at home: Hiking Lady’s First Aid Kit Customization.
