What's in your "Oh Sh*t" kit?

Ever been out in the mountains and realize that you have a situation that doesn't involve fixing a bike and riding out. Some sort of outdoors activity, far from contact with civilization where what you have with you will be what you have to deal with a medical situation or an unintended stay overnight?

Well I have, and probably a lot of other people as well, in varying degrees. So I thought I'd start a thread on what we carry for these eventualities.

I carry for two eventualities: medical issues and "I'm stuck here in the bush". The more luggage you have, the more you can carry, but here's my list for "nothing but a tank bag/small pack/enduro jacket with lots of pockets". All the stuff below fits in my Wolfman tank bag, leaving room for my DSLR, one lense, a Gorillapod, and some snackies.

Medical

• Two CF soakers (compression bandages). Huge, packaged tiny.
  
• Esmarch bandage
  
• An adult OPA/NPA kit (I don't carry a mask; I know the people I ride with)
  
• Two QuickSplints
  
• One abdo pad
  
• One gauze roller bandage
  
• Two small packaged triangulars
  
• Steri-strips
  
• Two cohesive tensor bandages
  
• small roll of medical tape wrapped around pen-light
  
• Benadryl - better than nothing for unexpected anaphylactic shock
  
• Baby aspirin - older guys have heart attacks sometimes
  
• cheap super scissors
  

All that stuff takes up very little room. The splints get formed around the outside walls of the tank bag, most of the rest can act as padding for the camera and lens or be arranged into the various small nooks and crannies in the bag. The main point is I can easily whip open my bag, drag out my DSLR, take a pic, and put it right back without spending half a minute to extract it and another half minute to rearrange things to return it. Works for me.

You'll notice that there's no "Oowiee" stuff in there. I don't carry bandaids, sting stop, and all that other stuff. With what I have above, I can treat most life threatening and serious injuries to the extent of my training and standard of care as a certified EMT-B. I'm not carrying oxygen, or collars, or epi-pens, but I have at least the basic tools to treat most serious stuff, including non breathing, deadly bleeds, etc. If we're hours away from medivac and trauma care, you may be out of luck anyways due to shock, internal bleeding, etc, but I do have at least the minimum for critical interventions and treatment. If you have an Oowieee... well, suck it up buttercup, or find somebody else to kiss it better.

Overnight stays...

Survival

• Two monster size bright orange garbage bags - great emergency shelters and high vis, no size or weight
  
• Two space blankets - great heat reflectors
  
• 100 yds of 40 lb cord
  
• Small metal bento box containing two small lighters, tiny compass, reflector mirror, snare wire, hooks, fishing line, tiny folding knife.
  
• A Shrade multi-tool that always stays on my person.
  
• 25 yards of real para cord that always stays on my person.
  
• A handgun - where it's legal (about half the places I ride), and too many people around here go hand to hand with cougars and bears to suit me.
  

On the bike, I doubt I would ever come to the point of needing snare wire, hooks, and fishing line. But that survival kit is prepackaged, and I simply transfer it to whatever I'm wearing whether I'm going hunting, fishing, backpacking, mountain biking, kayaking. It will work in any of those situations to provide the basic essentials for short term survival: shelter and warmth. Water is not a concern in the areas I ride in.

BTW, one tip for survival kits. It is a curious thing, but very few people I've talked to about their survival kits have actually tried them out to make sure they'll do what they want them to do, as intended. I HAVE made shelters and rain gear out of those garbage bags, I HAVE made fires with rigged reflectors from those space blankets, and I HAVE spent a night out with just that stuff to know it works. My Dad did this with my brothers and I when we were young. First during nice weather, then later in lousy rain and cold late fall (we weren't winter outdoorsy guys back then). A couple of times we went out hunting, he'd pitch the tent, then take us a hundred yards down the road and tell us to use our survival kits to set up for the night. It was a safe way to check it out - we knew if we screwed up and our shelters failed, we couldn't get warmth happening, etc, Dad was there keeping an eye on us and all we had to do was walk down the road to the tent to warmth and shelter and a cup of hot chocolate and some encouragement from Dad. Hit the tent once or twice the first couple of times, but by the third or fourth time, we pretty much had it figured out. Can't remember any of those nights being particularly comfortable, but we did learn to stay warm and dry and get some rest. And I found out I just hate the taste of half charred rabbit and I'm allergic to their fur...

Anyways, curious how the rest of you go out prepared for medical and "I'm stranded" emergencies.

I usually carry everything I'd normally have on me at work (lifeguard); rubber gloves, treach-tubes, various band-aids, bandage wraps, tensors, Locking flip knife, multi tool, rescue mask, mini emergency FA kit (about the size of a deck of cards, treats up to one major FA event) and my ever present guarding whistle. All of this in an MEC fanny pack. I carry my repair stuff (irons, patch kit, the odd flare gun ) in my tank bag.

Tibarus wrote:

I usually carry everything I'd normally have on me at work (lifeguard); rubber gloves, treach-tubes, various band-aids, bandage wraps, tensors, Locking flip knife, multi tool, rescue mask, mini emergency FA kit (about the size of a deck of cards, treats up to one major FA event) and my ever present guarding whistle. All of this in an MEC fanny pack. I carry my repair stuff (irons, patch kit, the odd flare gun ) in my tank bag.

I assume a "treach-tube" is an OPA.

I don't carry a mask or gloves because I know the people I'm riding with. None of us have anything requires us to use BSI with each other. And there once was a day in lifeguarding when you did mouth to mouth on each other, sans mask, for practice... we always tried to be the one standing next to one of the few girls, but the girls tended to try and stand next to each other, and there were always more guys than girls... so... Anyway, I can do AR without a mask if necessary.

I'll tell you what, however.

Take whatever "pressure dressing" is in that deck of cards first aid kit to one of the paramedics at your nearest station who has seen a few major bleeds and ask them how useful it will be in stopping a major bleed. Having seen a few deadly bleeds over in Yugo and while working car, I can tell you about all that "pressure dressing" is good for is to be used as an enhanced band aid. Or a sanitary napkin by your girlfriend. Those things are a joke, they're useless, and they're dangerous because people who have never had to deal with a serious femoral or brachial bleed think they will actually work.

In fact... go down to the skids, ask somebody to put you in contact with Jeff Birko, and ask to ride third on car with him for work experience. Say you're thinking about a career as a paramedic or whatever. Watch them treat some serious injuries and then ask if you could treat those injuries with your playing card size FA kit. You won't see a single bandage or dressing in a jump kit that bears any resemblance to those joke "personal first aid kits" that get sold all over the province. Except for maybe the band-aids. Barney the dinosaur is always a big hit with the kids.

Jäger wrote:

I assume a "treach-tube" is an OPA.

Yeah, we can never seem to remember the actual name of those darned things, we just call them by description, saves time, frustration and confusion (especially when you're the only guard on duty and have to rely on the office staff for help.... oi...)

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I don't carry a mask or gloves because I know the people I'm riding with. None of us have anything requires us to use BSI with each other. And there once was a day in lifeguarding when you did mouth to mouth on each other, sans mask, for practice... we always tried to be the one standing next to one of the few girls, but the girls tended to try and stand next to each other, and there were always more guys than girls... so... Anyway, I can do AR without a mask if necessary.

The mask and gloves is a force of habit for me, not one I wanna be broken of either, better safe than sorry right? I remember learning basic AR in the red cross swim lessons I took when I was a kid, masks didn't exist as far as we were concerned... But now... Yeah, it's a mandate now... No AR without a mask with a current, intact filter. But hey, I don't complain, it's one of the easier things to remember to pack.

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Take whatever "pressure dressing" is in that deck of cards first aid kit to one of the paramedics at your nearest station who has seen a few major bleeds and ask them how useful it will be in stopping a major bleed. Having seen a few deadly bleeds over in Yugo and while working car, I can tell you about all that "pressure dressing" is good for is to be used as an enhanced band aid. Or a sanitary napkin by your girlfriend. Those things are a joke, they're useless, and they're dangerous because people who have never had to deal with a serious femoral or brachial bleed think they will actually work.

Yeah, we don't trust the claim on the label either, we've dubbed the thing the "deck-o-crap", it's a total joke, truth is, I can probably treat a major FA incident with a hotel sewing kit and duct-tape better than I can with that stupid thing... Infact... It's in prime condition, never used and in it's original packaging (still vaccum sealed ) , I'll keep it for 30 years and then sell it an an antique

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Barney the dinosaur is always a big hit with the kids.

Dora the explorer and pokémon seem to be the hot ticket, it's what I stock my pack with

I have a more expansive, extra large water tight tool box turned everything and the kitchen sink FA kit (build by one of my friends who's a para) safely stored in which ever vehicle I'm using to transport the bike.

I have no first aid training (since the Boy Scouts way log ago) and have to rely on outside help. One thought I'd share from experience. Consider that if you ride the trails under high voltage power lines a rescue chopper cannot land unless you are near a field. I won't bore anyone with the details, but when a buddy broke his leg on such a ride he was very lucky that it was a simple rather than compound fracture, and a local 4WD rescue team was nearby and able to get into the area where he fell.

BluePill wrote:

Consider that if you ride the trails under high voltage power lines a rescue chopper cannot land unless you are near a field.

That's about the pilot, not about any restrictions on medivac flights (unless by his employer).

A good friend of mine makes his living flying a helicopter around and right beside power lines all day, every day. I can't find any of his emails with pictures right now, but here's a video of about how that goes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3q9WdjD5wc

In the Rockies, just about any work that has anything to do with powerlines is done from a helicopter.

Mine has two cans of warm beer in it....