safety/survival gear -- what do you carry?

What I figure to be a real complete splitboard/binding repair kit, stocked with way more than I should ever need to deal with whatever obstacles the square wheel side of alpine travel technology throws at me. This is heavy, but experience makes me not question it's worth.

Binding parts, extra pins, touring bracket, etc. Getting stuck and slogging sucks.

Multitool-you can cut tree branches for a unplannned bivy. Extra hardwear, especially the miscellaneous, critical kind. Fix stuff. Slash your wrists if you get scared.

Headlamp-2 extra batteries.

Like 10 zip ties-these weigh nothing and will fix almost everything-equal to, if not better than, duct tape, IMHO. I know, I know-sacrilege.

Duct tape.

Avy tools.

Space blanket bivy sack. Weighs nada.

First Aid kit-sam splint, bandages, cravats, absorbent pads, heating packs, tape, sling out of a old sheet. MOFA, or MOFA refresher in my case. Deal with a concussion 3 hours from the road in the setting sun. It's not all about bleeding. Way worth it, especially the training. Mountain Oriented First Aid by Mtneers Books (read, not carried).

Compass/inclinometer with mirror.

Extra food. Extra warm layers.

Props to Snow Bell-medic, hit me again!

I saw the inside of Ron Jarvis's back pack at a mountaineers thing-its like a toy chest, please post the list!

Just got back from Brooklyn. Happy to be somewhere that people don't throw wrappers on the ground to one side, when there is a trashcan equidistant to their other side. I swear I saw this. Nice to be in the Great White North again, eh?

NO DOZE - is in my BC pharmacy 1 pill is equal to 2 cups of coffee and no mess (also ibuprofen and benadryll).

Also, for extra food, Top Ramen soup which is 8% fat - better than a glass whole milk - light, packable, cheep.

Jet boil - better than its weight in water. Hot soup and a hot water bottle are morale booster/lifesaver for emergency bivy or evacuation.

You can shave off a strip of your skins if you need fire starter in an emergency too.

[I did spend an unplanned night on north side of MRNP with a mylar space blanket and lived to tell about it. Bivy sack would have been nice... I was glad to have a bivy sack and warm clothes when I broke my femur on S side of Mt R a few years ago and had a few hours in the snow waiting for help.]

That’s a good story Don, thanks.
In your TR you didn’t say much about the performance of the space blanket. Was it useful- did it contribute to your comfort/survival? Do you think one would have been useful when you broke your femur?
The reason I’m asking is because I once spent a "non-survival" type night with one and, while it takes up almost no space and weighs nothing it didn’t seem to provide much shelter value either.

good thread...not much to add to what others have written.

one item that i've had in my first-aid kit for years is a spare set of sunglasses for if/when my usual glasses were to ever break. next time you are at the eye doctor, ask them for a pair of those disposible wrap around plastic sunglasses they give people after you've had your pupils dialated...the disposible glasses weigh nothing, and will keep you from getting snowblindness should your glasses get lost (or in my case have a lens in a pair of julbo glacier glasses actually pop out and slide away at 13,000ft on Rainier)

^^^^
Or just carry goggles and sunglasses?

Good thread. After every trip I dump my pack and give everything the EYE. Over time here's what I've ended up with.

Sucked it up and bought a Feathered Friends 20 deg bag (compresses smaller than a Nalgene bottle - 1lb 15oz), Big Angus air pad and BD First Light tent.  All total about 5lbs and can get you through almost any situation (especially combined with puffy pants and jacket) without too much bulk and the tent can be used without the poles as a bivy sac. This little threesome goes on all longer trips (sea kayak, back packing, skiing etc) unless it's going to be really wet and then it's the synthetic bag or really cold and then it's time for the big guns.

Jet boil with hang kit, lighter and sporke

Leatherman micro

BD Whippet

Paddlers first aid kit (bleeding, shock, etc) and current First Aid/CPR

Duck tape on ski poles (combine the two to make a splint)

Expedition weight balaclava, socks, over mitts in xs stuff sack

Beacon, probe, shovel

Small copy of Tao De Ching

Compass with mirror, map, GPS with PNW maps loaded, iphone (on airplane mode the battery will last for days and it doubles a camera and inclinometer)

20ft 2mm cord

When necessary the usual glacier/mountaineering swag (30m glacier rope, axe, crampons, harness, pro, crevasse rescue stuff)

Light weight climbing helmet

Sunglasses AND goggles and spare glasses

I need to put together a small binding repair kit (epoxy, tele screws etc, but haven't found the time) or luckily the use.

That's about it.  Gosh that's a lot of stuff, no wonder I'm so slow  :