The Gear House

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State of the art dressings, wound closure tapes, and nonprescription medications allow the construction of a very useful first-aid kit for general outdoor use.

Very often treatments can be improvised with items on hand, but prior planning and inclusion of key items in your kit will provide you with the best that modern medical science can offer.

Most outfitting stores carry prepackaged first-aid kits. Outdoor Research, REI, and Adventure Medical Kits offer great ones. You can also make your own with the following items:

• Non latex surgical gloves, several pairs
• Cover strip closures (2 packages)
• Moleskin
• Spenco Second Skin
• Bulb irrigating syringe
• Gauze pads (5 packages)
• Gauze dressings (2 rolls)
• Elastic bandage (roll, Ace bandage)
• Tape, hypoallergenic
• Triple antibiotic ointment
• Antimicrobial skin cleanser
• Medications (laxative, anti diarrhea, allergy, decongestant, antihistamine, aspirin, ibuprofen, etc.)
• Sterile Swabs
• Safety pins
• Extra vials and resealable plastic bags for packaging the above items
• Black sharpie marker and paper
• Reference cards or packable first-aid guide
• Extra supply of any special medications necessary to treat known conditions of any members in your party (inhalers, epi pins, etc.)

Of course this list is just suggestions and some of the most common items you will find in any first-aid kit. If you are not sure that you want to create your own, there are plenty of kits that you can purchase that have everything that you would need for a normal trip.

Remember, the equipment is no good if you do not know how to use it properly. I strongly encourage you to check out different websites on wilderness first-aid, look at taking courses, and reading as much about it as you possibly can. I mean, you wouldn’t want to screw up providing aid to one of your friends when they really need it would you?