the Ten Essentials…. and why
Too important not to share….
So, I’m cheating a little… the article below isn’t mine, but a great and incredibly important read for hiker safety.
This article was written by Nancy East. a hiker, Author, and outdoor educator.
You can find more information about Nancy and her incredible adventures here. https://www.hopeandfeathertravels.com/
The link for the full article is below.
Recently, Backpacker Magazine released an article titled, “How ‘Essential’ Are the Ten Essentials? According to This Study: Not Very” You can read it right here. A few people reached out to me and asked for my thoughts about it. But first a little background about me, in case a hiking friend shared this with you.
I have been a member of Western North Carolina based search and rescue team for nearly six years, and my team is one of the busiest in the state for wilderness search and rescue call outs. Statistically speaking, the people we assist are a tiny fraction of the droves of people who recreate in our amazing wilderness areas. But when they need our help, they often really need our help.
One of the most publicized and tragic searches that my team took part in literally changed the trajectory of my life. I retired from my career as a veterinarian to devote my time teaching hikers how to stay “safe and found,” to avoid becoming another fatal statistic. I regularly teach people to carry all the items on the “Ten Essentials” list in their backpacks (plus a few more strongly suggested items), no matter how short, popular or easy of a hike they’re taking. Every reputable outdoor organization and professional I know teaches this too.
So I assumed the article’s title was click bait, luring readers into an ad-laden web page that ultimately validated what I know to be true as a SAR team member: the Ten Essentials, and certain learned skills, can (and do) save lives in the backcountry.
The article’s title, however, was not click bait. What it proposes is the message it delivers. And it’s a dangerous one, especially for novice hikers who may buy into the notion that things like fire starting materials, rain protection and a headlamp aren’t all that important on the sunny, warm summer day they set out for a short, easy hike.
While I appreciate the article stating the limitations and flaws of the “study,” I hardly consider it a credible study. And while I understand the curiosity behind investigating whether the The Essentials have a reliable record of saving lives, the article misses the point completely.
The Ten Essentials largely exist in your pack for worst-case scenarios (and again, they aren’t common, statistically speaking). But just because the odds are in your favor that you’ll emerge from the woods alive doesn’t lessen the importance of having appropriate gear and knowledge if you face a rare, but plausible, life-threatening situation.
Think about how long it would take for a SAR team to mobilize and reach you deep in the woods if you or a hiking companion couldn’t walk out on your own from an orthopedic injury that greatly limited your mobility—one of the most common SAR scenarios. You need to take care of yourself until help arrives, which is usually hours, even in the best circumstances (and occasionally days if you’re lost). Here’s one of my team’s favorite rescues which highlights this exact scenario and the excellent choices made by the hikers we helped.
Oh, and spoiler alert: those cool and expedient helicopter rescues you read about aren’t the norm. More often than not, you’re going to wait out a volunteer team whose members have to stop what they’re doing in their regular life, drive a decent distance to a trailhead, and then hike to you with heavy and cumbersome equipment to carry you out.
I hope that you’ll never have to use your fire starting kit to start a fire on a bitterly cold night while you wait for a SAR team’s help. But I’ve seen firsthand when only a fire kept two young men alive while they waited to be found (which took nearly three days). They hardly had anything else with them to survive the conditions they faced, which were drastically different from the conditions they started their hike in. It’s probably the only time being a smoker saved someone’s life.
And I’ll always hope that you make it off trail by dark, but I’ve lost count of how many times my SAR team has gone looking for hikers at night because they didn’t pack a light source other than a phone—which, by that time, barely had enough juice to make a call to 911, if they even had reception. These hikers are often facing worsening weather they aren’t prepared to safely endure overnight, from lack of appropriate gear in their packs (a.k.a. the Ten Essentials).
The article sends a strong message that the most important items from the Ten Essentials are food, water, extra clothing and a medical kit. The participants in the study most commonly used these items on their hikes if they experienced any minor difficulties. I can’t argue the probability that they are four of the most commonly used essentials on the list. But just because they’re frequently used doesn’t make them the most useful in a serious survival situation.
All the snacks, water, and band-aids in the world will not help you in 40-degree temperatures during a downpour. In this common scenario my SAR team finds people facing, hikers will benefit far more from a cheap trash compacter bag to use as an emergency shelter, along with a rain jacket they might have initially thought of as dead weight when the forecast called for sunny, warm conditions until the evening, by which time they assumed they’d be off trail enjoying pizza and beer.
And that fancy down puffy jacket they brought as their “extra clothing”—the fourth essential the article claims is the most important to hikers? It’s certainly valuable and necessary, but it’s useless in this scenario’s conditions without something to protect it from getting wet. The Ten Essentials often work as a team—individual items are far more useful coupled with complementary counterparts.
The article also posits that a heavier backpack increases the risk of injuries. At least we agree on something. But here’s the thing—the Ten Essentials shouldn’t make you feel like a pack mule. If they do, seek the counsel of a trusted hiker friend who has dialed in a lightweight load out that doesn’t compromise safety. If you don’t have such a friend, reach out to me and I’ll guide you. Side note: the article also validates that modern gear has come a long way in terms of weight.
There is one last point in the article with which I agree—that hikers can feel as if carrying the Ten Essentials grants them a coat of armor. Things like a compass and fire starting materials are dead weight if you don’t know how to use them properly. Figuring these skills out in the backcountry when you’re under stress is not the time to learn them.
Please don’t let any of this information scare you though. My team also rescues the most inexperienced and unknowledgeable hikers on the planet who dug deep and figured out how to survive, despite the deficiencies in their skill set and backpacks. Thankfully, none of us have a choice but to bring the eleventh and arguably the most critical essential—our brain. Keeping your wits about you and channeling a positive mental attitude can often mitigate a multitude of blunders.
But SAR teams, including mine, have carried plenty of people out of the woods in a body bag because they weren’t properly equipped and/or panicked in the face of danger—hence my mission to convince you that this stuff matters….a lot.
One final thought that the article doesn’t touch on is the importance of variation of the Ten Essentials. If I were to hike in the Grand Canyon, my pack might look different than that of a hike in the Smokies. The list of essential “systems” is meant to act as a starting point for risk management. Location, season and an individual hiker’s skill set should always be taken into account . Ultimately, what you pack should be based on your answers to these two questions, as defined by the creators of the concept of the Ten Essentials, The Mountaineers:
Can you prevent emergencies and respond positively should one occur?
Can you safely spend a night (or more) outside?
By now, I imagine my stance on this article is as clear as a mountain stream. The Ten Essentials are still critical items every hiker should carry on every single hike, and you should take the time to learn certain skills before entering the backcountry. I hope that you never need to draw on any of it during your hikes, but my greater hope is that you have it at the ready if you do.
Happy trails and stay safe out there,
Nancy
https://www.hopeandfeathertravels.com/backpacker-magazines-misleading-article/
