The equipment that accompanies many outdoors pursuits is often specific to activity, location and duration. Preparing and packing your gear ahead of an adventure is all part of the preamble, adding to the anticipation and excitement of the coming trip. These preparations act as a focussing exercise also, drawing on experience and assessment to pull together a practical outfit for the task.

In regularly assembling my gear into various configurations I’ve found there are a few key items which fulfil some critical functions across a broad span of disciplines and so come with me on most excursions, and so I’ve tried to bring together items which are small, durable and reliable to perform when I need them whilst being as packable as possible. I find these few smaller items need gathering together into a single packet to keep them organised, and easily shifted from one rucksack to another between different trips.

The rundown

• Belt Pouch: I carry a canvas pouch in the top of my rucksack or in the haversack as a durable and concise option for containing these items. It has straps to attached to the belt too which is great as I’m not a huge fan of stuffing my pockets with bits of equipment to jostle around as I’m walking, so being able strap all my essential bits of kit to my belt when I arrive in camp is ideal.

• Tinder card: The only thing I carry specifically to aid with fire lighting, as I rely mostly of natural materials found along the way, is this waxed card. It burns hot and long, lights with a ferro rod and is impervious to the wet.

• Headache and water purification tablets: It’s not uncommon to get a headache while out for extended periods, or even just a day if you start to feel a little under the weather so a few headache tablets go a long way for general comfort. I also carry water purification tablets as an emergency option should I need some drinking water and I’m away for my filter or fire; they’re also good for creating very clean water to irrigate a wound.

• Tuff tape: Howl instructor Max put me on to this tape, which he carries for repairs to Thermarests, tents, and clothing. I thought it was a great idea and now do the same.

• Magnifying glass: I like to look at flowers and insect in detail sometimes, I’m a nerd. Also handy for removing splinters.

• Compass: I carry always a good quality compass in another pouch in my gear when I’m going for longer walks or away from familiar areas. I then back this up with the high quality small compass here, if my main compass breaks or is lost then I’m already in a stressful situation which I don’t want compounded by having to fall back on a cheap unreliable button compass. If I’m out for short walks or familiar ground then I may feel I don’t need my main compass, but I’ll have this back up just in case.

• Whetstone: I used to carry for many years a DC4 pocket stone by Fjallraven, which is truly an excellent stone for keeping your tools in good nick. I have however snapped one during a small fall in the woods, and I know of two others who have snapped them also either in use or by dropping them. So I wanted an unbreakable whetstone to replace my own. For the last couple of years I’ve used a Buck EdgeTek diamond sharpener which I’ve found to work just as well as my DC4 once I wore it in a little, and being a piece of steel with diamond plating it doesn’t matter if it gets dropped, frozen, wet, oily… it works for me.

• Head torch strap, head torch, spare battery: I like a good backup for my essential kit components and lighting is a big one. You’ll see below I have an LED around my neck most of the time. My main headtorch is featured in the article HERE, but my backup (or main option if my just bringing the belt pouch kit) is a Fenix MH50R V2.0. Very compact, durable and rechargeable from a battery pack or mains. I used to use an Olight torch but I found the magnet on those messed up my compass’ so I swapped it for this Fenix and it’s great. I carry the headband for it too so I can use it as a head torch or hand held depending; but the headband is also VERY reflective which I’ve used several times for night navigation exercises and also to hang up next to my tarp while I’m out for a 2am toileting… I can find my tarp very easily coming back! The spare battery for this torch is also rechargeable via USB so I can keep it topped up on exped from a battery pack.

• Paracord: Just your classic 5 metre length of multi use paracord, it’s good for loads of stuff.

• Mozzy headnet: A real lifesaver when the midges are bad, also doubles as a snow melter next to a fire for water in the colder months and as a berry collecting bag.

• Insect repellent: Unless I’m heading for Scotland in summer then I find the wonderful aroma of Olja Beck to be the only repellent I need, and it’s all natural ingredients too. I did use Nordic Summer for years prior, but I sometimes found it somewhat messy and melty in hot weather. During Covid 2019 it was har to get a hold of for a while too, so I tried Beck oil instead as it’s made from the same core ingredient and found that not only did it work just as well but being an oil it also doubles as an emergency fire lighting aid.

• Tick tool: Getting ticks removed quickly and properly goes a long way to help reduce the risk of contracting an infection like Lymes or Encephalitis.

• Carabiners: I use these mostly to clip stuff to my belt as I’m using them like gloves etc. but they’re also handy for reducing friction in a truckers hitch or for creating a light pulley.

• Vaseline: Lips get dry and cracked when exposed to harsh weather for long periods, this does the trick. Plus yet another backup fire lighting aid.

• Lighter, firesteel, pocket knife: to be fair these three do end up in my pockets pretty much as soon as I get started on a trip but I put them in the pouch when I get home or at the end of the day before bed so I know I have them when I pick up the belt pouch. Living in the UK, having a high quality legal carry pocket knife is ideal for most camping trips where I’m not planning to spend a lot of time carving or crafting. Only when I’m away for longer, on expedition, or planning to do a lot of knife work will I take a fixed blade (see above). A good Firesteel is worth spending the extra £5 on when you really need it, I often tell clients if you want to save a bit of cash when buying gear to save perhaps £100’s by getting a high end sleeping bag in the new year sales… spend the extra fiver and get a good Firesteel.

That’s what I’m carrying at the moment, I hope this acts as a good springboard for your own preparations and ideas. Let me know what you think, is there anything you carry on your person which I’ve not included here?

All the best

JD