Hiking

Blister care and strapping tape earn their weight more than anything else in the pack. Then dressings for cuts, a bandage that can double as ankle support, gloves, and something for burns.

The SURVIVAL Hiking First Aid KIT is built around that list. The SURVIVAL Slimline First Aid KIT is the flatter option if pack space is tighter than weight.

HOW MUCH WEIGHT IS REASONABLE

Most walkers overthink this. The SURVIVAL Hiking First Aid KIT is 515 grams, which is less than the water you drink in the first hour.

The mistake is not carrying too much, it is carrying a KIT so minimal it only handles paper cuts. If you have cut weight to the point where you cannot manage a deep laceration or a sprain, you have cut too far.

SNAKE BITE ON THE TRACK

This is the one that matters in Australia, and it is the one most hikers are least prepared for.

The treatment is a pressure immobilisation bandage applied correctly and quickly, then keeping the person still. Not a tourniquet, not cutting, not sucking. Getting the tension right matters, and it is hard to judge under stress.

The SURVIVAL Snake Bite KIT includes a SMART Bandage, developed with snake safety experts SSSafe. It has a pictogram printed along it: a rectangle that becomes a square when you have reached the right tension, so you can see it rather than guess. The KIT also carries a splint, a tick spoon, an emergency blanket and a whistle, which is why it earns its place on more walks than its name suggests.

Funnel-web spider and cone shell are treated the same way, which is worth knowing if your walk ends at the coast. SURVIVAL recommends proper first aid training alongside any KIT.

DAY WALKS VERSUS MULTI-DAY

On a day walk you are usually within a few hours of the car. A compact KIT and a snake bite KIT will cover you.

Multi-day changes the maths. You are carrying for longer, you are further from a road, and a problem on day three is a very different problem to the same thing an hour from the car park. Add blister care you can actually ration, more strapping, and the SURVIVAL Remote & Outdoor Module for the injuries that need managing rather than just covering.

WHERE TO CARRY IT

In the lid of your pack or a hip belt pocket. Not the bottom of the main compartment.

The reason is simple. If someone in your group goes down, you do not want to be emptying a pack onto the track to find the KIT. Anything you might need in a hurry lives somewhere you can reach without taking the pack off.

Also see Camping, Travel and Outdoor.