Apart from zinc oxide tape, a couple of large plasters, cleaning wipes and wound dressings, what else should go in to a minimal first aid kit for a day in the fells?
On top of that I carry blister plasters, a cohesive bandage, and a £10 note.
I normally chuck in a tiny tub of vaseline and ditto sudocream
The strongest painkillers you have.
Electrical tape rather than zinc oxide as it sticks better when you are wet and muddy.
I also have little sachets of disinfectant stuff which is good for irritating a wound. I can't remember what it's called just now.
I don't carry much for running. Something to stem a major bleed, something to tape a broken or injured thing to my body or a stick etc and something to clean a wound.
I do carry plenty of things to keep me warm so I can get off the hill without hypothermia in my injured state.
Outside of instructing (where I carry a reasonable leaders FA kit) I work on the principal of 'what's going to kill someone quickly, and what can I reasonably carry to stop this happening?'
Large bleeds and getting cold seem like the obvious things to me, so I always carry a large trauma dressing, some vetwrap, a warm jacket and some painkillers. Everything else can be bodged or put up with until you get back to the car or real help arrives.
Something to stop big bleeds (abdominal pad or similar), annoying bleeds (steristrips/couple of plasters), compeed, antihistamines, £10 note, few cleaning wipes, gloves, disposable facemask (mostly in case of a coffee stop and I've not got a buff) and some loo roll. All in for less than 60 grams in a little zip lock bag.
If I'm on my own, I'll take a thermal survival bag thing from lomo, they're cheap and ~100g, or a supalite bothy (230g) if I'm high up with changeable weather and with others
So all in for ~ 160 grams and cheap to put together
For a long day I'd often put in Vaseline. Possibly micropore tape. Otherwise nothing.
I don't carry much, a couple of medium sized self adhesive wound dressings, a crepe bandage (can be used as compression dressing, support, sling etc) a couple of paracetamol and some anti chafe gel, i always have a silver emergency bag (not blanket) in my bag too. If its for an event i will just add whatever they want to see in there from the kit list.
None of that for me. Half a roll of cling film (half longways, get the saw out) and an ultralight survival bag. Cling film can bodge practically anything, survival bag to stay warm if you need actual help.
Unless necessitated by a kit list, I don't really carry anything outside of a survival bag, warm gear and buffs, which IMO (probably misfounded) can be used to staunch anything. I should probably carry more.
I do carry a few long, sturdy cable ties in case of shoe disintegration. Some people carry gaffa for the same purpose but then you lose half of your shoe grip.
A ziplock bag with a few plasters and wet wipes in there, the elastic bandage that's obligatory for big races and a silver survival blanket. Combined with wind/waterproofs plus an extra midlayer + buffs that's a reasonable amount.
Tick tweezers. I don't care about cuts scrapes etc, but those evil little buggers terrify me.
> I do carry a few long, sturdy cable ties in case of shoe disintegration. Some people carry gaffa for the same purpose but then you lose half of your shoe grip.
How do you use the cable ties?
TBH I work on the principle if I can stop it with a first aid kit then it's probably not a big cut. I've had some pretty big cuts and sealed it with what I had on me. A cag tied around it with a spare sock folded on top was used on one puncture wound from a stick going through my calf.
But I was not going to bleed out anyway so either way I had a 6km hop.
vaseline is the one I don't like to leave behind for anything over 4-5 hours because chaffing is just debilitating. I did a 53 mile run in the white mountains last summer and got awful chaffing. It was agony for the last 10 miles.
wrap them around the flappy sole. With your foot still in obviously. I have seen someone finish an OMM with cable-tied shoes.
The problem with using your warm kit to stem a bleed is that you then have no warm stuff to prevent hypothermia while you slowly hobble off in your injured state!!
why I carry extra buffs to stem, on top of the warm gear.
Hmm, I think I must be a bit oblivious about the risks - I don't carry much first-aid kit at all for most summer runs. I tend to think that bleeding is OK for small wounds (flushes cr*p out of wound). Vaseline/sudocrem is useful for those chafes that aren't life-threatening but sure make you miserable (but that's not a problem I have often). Painkillers I take (Ibuprofen, co-codamol) but have never needed on one day run (multiday is different). From memory I think I've carried various minimalist kits at various times over decades, but I don't think I've ever use anything from them whilst actually running. The only more serious head-rock injury was treated with items of spare clothing I had plus an MR call-out (it wasn't my head).
I had a horrible experience this weekend playing soccer. Guy suffered a massive cardiac arrest. luckily a nurse was walking past, literally seconds away as he dropped, so we got to him within seconds, started CPR, someone got an AED and we shocked him quickly. By chance there was 2 nurses and an athletic trainer who took over and organized it. He was sort of conscious by the time the ambulance, police, fire got to him. Had it been on a run he was dead, there is just no way you could get adequate blood blow for long. He was so lucky to have had that where he was with that level of expertise at hand by chance and an AED yards away - which wasn't adequately signed so we didn't know where it was.
EDIT - just got an update, he had 3 heart attacks, one on the field, one in the ambulance and one more on the operating table. He's now conscious but still in ICU. incredible he's made it this far.
A huge +1 for the cohesive bandage.
They stick to themselves, (even when wet), and can be used to immobilise broken wrists, as a compression bandage or make slings. I once tied someones dog back together with one after it had run through a barbed wire fence .
Great bit of kit.
> A huge +1 for the cohesive bandage.
> They stick to themselves, (even when wet), ...
> Great bit of kit.
Agreed! Have it at home, but wouldn't carry it in a minimalist (day run) first-aid kit - it's quite bulky.
Anybody care to recommend a make of emergency foil blanket please? There loads of cheap and seemingly identical 210cm x 160cm 55g ones available online, but maybe those all turn to confetti when needed.
My climbing buddy used to have a tin of sardines as his emergency food because he hated sardines, and was therefore unlikely to have eaten them before being really needed.
Other than stuff that has already been mentioned- aspirin, a couple of safety pins, tampons (to stem significant bleeds) and a small Swiss Army knife.
In reply to LucaC:
> Outside of instructing (where I carry a reasonable leaders FA kit) I work on the principal of 'what's going to kill someone quickly, and what can I reasonably carry to stop this happening?'
> Large bleeds and getting cold seem like the obvious things to me, so I always carry a large trauma dressing, some vetwrap, a warm jacket and some painkillers. Everything else can be bodged or put up with until you get back to the car or real help arrives.
I'm not a runner but for walking/climbing I kind of take the opposite approach. If something is going to be fatal then basic life support is what's needed, not much in a first aid kit will help you.
Smaller injuries will either be annoying in which case a little first aid kit will be great. A bigger injury like a bleed or a break will will require proper attention but again, first aid kit will be handy in the mean time.
I just use a lifesystems nano kit, has everything you need in a waterproof bag, weighs like 100g, costs like 17 quid, job done.
I've been recently told on a 1st aid course tampons are a terrible idea for this as you want to be stopping blood flow rather than absorbing it...
Seems obvious in hindsight.
Rather than a blanket you want a bag. Much better to keep a patient warm.
Hard to find though. Has anyone found a good source recently. I suppose alternative would be to tape two blankets together, or if Big enough one.
You will be wanting a bag, the Lomo ones are good value:
https://www.lomo.co.uk/acatalog/Lightweight-Orange-Foil-Survival-Bag.html
> I've been recently told on a 1st aid course tampons are a terrible idea for this as you want to be stopping blood flow rather than absorbing it...
> Seems obvious in hindsight.
Depends on the nature of the injury. If someone has a hole in them that's spurting blood then a tampon is as good as anything to close it. Conventional bandages also absorb blood, which is why you put another one on top when it's saturated. Tourniquets and haemostatic dressings are a bit beyond basic running first aid kits.
Thanks. I couldn’t see the weight of the Lomo bag on their website but it looks identical to the Alpkit one which is 105g. I think I can manage that.
Tampons may be as good as anything but that means they are as good as gauze and pressure, and gauze is just useful for most injuries so surely it's easier to just carry that?
I'm unconvinced carry tampons is ever useful outside of using them for periods.
They are all about that weight i think, you might find one a few grams lighter but at the price its hard to ignore.
Climbing tape, rather than standard ZO tape, super glue, duct tape, spare socks. Means you can fix yourself and your kit on the go. Not much you can't bodge with these. Maybe an Israeli bandage if I'm feeling posh. As with alpine climbing I tend not to take anything that doesn't have at least two uses.