September is Emergency Preparedness Month, and there’s no better time to upgrade your survival kit. For those who love to spend time outdoors, especially if you dabble in some backcountry exploration, we recommend traveling with an emergency survival kit. We also recommend continuously evaluating your kit as your needs evolve.
Each person’s survival kit is going to look different, and this article is not designed to provide advice on how to build one from scratch. Rather, it provides suggestions for gear we’ve personally tested that would make for some good upgrades to your survival kit, depending on the types of activities you do outdoors.
When building an emergency kit for outdoor activities, remember the 10 essentials. These include navigation tools, sun protection, extra clothing, a light source, a first-aid kit, fire supplies, tools and a repair kit, food, water, and shelter.
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Food and Water
Image by Nutrient Survival
Nutrient Survival claims it has the most nutrient-packed food in the world. The company prepares meals using patented recipes and real ingredients, then freeze dries them to lock in flavor and essential nutrients. In some cases, you can rehydrate a Nutrient Survival meal up to 25 years later, and it’ll taste as good as the day they made it.
I tried the Alpha Collection Grab and Go Power Pack and the Best Seller Variety Sampler (free with any purchase). My favorite items included the maple almond grain crunch, the chocolate shake, the lasagna, and the apple cinnamon oatmeal.
Whether you’re bulking up an emergency-preparedness kit for your home or adding some provisions to your on-the-go survival pack, Nutrient Survival offers performance-minded meals packed with nutrients that actually taste good. If you have the room, consider the 14-day emergency food supply kit.
Image by Adventure Medical
For traveling, hiking, and emergencies, the RapidPure Purifier+ Bottle by Adventure Medical is a good investment. The filter gets rid of unpleasant tastes and smells from your tap water and, more importantly, 99.99% of viruses and 99.9999% of bacteria and parasites from your source water.
The RapidPure bottle is super easy to use. Simply fill the bottle with source water, then drink through the straw connected to the purifying filter (which attaches to the bottom of the straw). It takes slightly more effort to drink through than a regular straw, but there’s no boiling or pressing required and absolutely no chemicals involved in the purification process.
Image by Sagan Life
If a bottle is too large for your use case, consider the RapidFlo Survival Water Purifier by Sagan Life. This water purifier is light, compact, and effective. Toss it in your pack when backpacking, hiking, camping, or traveling, or add it to your survival kit as a perfect upgrade.
The RapidFlo purifier system is also easy to use. Submerge the filter in your source water and pump the blue handle. Discard the first cup of water, then you’re good to fill your container and drink.
I’ve found this solution effective in removing taste and smell from source water. Sagan Life’s purifier also removes 99.9999% of bacteria (like E.coli), 99.99% of protozoan (like cryptosporidium and giardia), and 99.99% of viruses. The filter further reduces lead, fluoride, arsenic, and other heavy metals and contaminants that might be lurking in your source water.
Tools and Gear
Image by Gerber
With the Gerber Camp Setup Kit in your hands, you’ll be way better prepared for surviving in the wild, if it ever comes to that. The kit includes a Pack Hatchet, a Fire Starter, and Gerber’s Stakeout multi-tool. Each one is purpose built to help you help yourself.
The hatchet comes with a sheath, has a rubber grip, and is corrosion resistant. It’s lightweight while still being sturdy enough to get the job done. The fire starter includes tinder storage and a 100-decibel emergency whistle. Finally, the Stakeout includes 11 tools in one, including a plain-edge blade, a file, a saw, tweezers, and scissors.
Image by Olight
If you want to upgrade your survival kit’s emergency light source, consider Olight’s Baton Turbo. This mini-sized flashlight is very powerful. Despite being about as long as your finger, it’ll deliver a beam up to 510 meters (1,500 feet). It also offers multiple power sources—regular batteries or a rechargeable battery.
This tiny torch has four levels of light, including low/moonlight, medium, high, and turbo. There’s also a strobe light setting, in case you need to capture someone’s attention. A 1.5-hour charge offers up to 50 days of light on the low setting, making it perfect for your emergency pack.
Image by Flashlight Go
Maybe you already have a basic emergency light source in your survival kit and want to add an upgraded piece of gear. In that case, go with the NITECORE NU30 triple output lightweight headlamp (you can buy on Amazon or FlashlightGo.com). At just 3.17 ounces, this headlamp won’t add a lot of weight to your pack, but it’ll add a lot of convenience and functionality to your situation.
The NU30 offers brilliant brightness and range, emitting 500 lumens and illuminating up to 130 meters (426 feet). It also has a handy ultra-low setting that will provide a small amount of light without blinding your companions. The built-in battery provides up to 97 hours of continuous use.
Modes include a primary white light, a high CRI white light (CRI≥90), an auxiliary red light, and an SOS strobe light/beacon for emergencies.
Health and Safety
Image by Sabre
If you recreate where bears and/or mountain lions roam, a deterrent spray should be part of your survival kit. (We also recommend carrying this with you while day hiking or camping in areas these animals live.) The Sabre Frontiersman MAX Bear and Mountain Lion Attack Deterrent is an excellent choice.
Sabre’s 9.2-ounce bear/mountain lion deterrent spray offers maximum stopping power and a range of 40 feet, allowing you to deploy it from a safer distance than other options on the market. The spray is easy to carry, thanks to the included holster, and offers one-hand deployment. It really is that easy to deploy. Simply pull back on the safety with your thumb, point, and spray.
We hope you never have to use this, but don’t get caught in a situation where you need it and don’t have it. If a bear spray isn’t already in your kit, upgrade!
Image by Jase Case
Here’s one you may not have heard of—Jase Case, which offers emergency lifesaving medications and antibiotics to use in time of need. If you want to prepare for being in a place or situation in which medical care may not be available, consider packing a Jase Case. The base case includes five prescription medications to help against things like pneumonia and bite wounds, traveler’s diarrhea and respiratory infections, UTIs and bioterrorism infections, Lyme disease and malaria, and giardia.
The process is simple. On Jase Case’s website, choose the base case, add optional medications to personalize your case according to your medical history and/or planned use case, and order. A physician will review your request and submit the prescriptions, and it’ll arrive in a handy little travel case in no time. I appreciate that Jase Case also sends along a booklet full of usage information that fits inside the case, so you can refer to it if/when you need the medications.
What upgrades are you making to your survival kit this Emergency Preparedness Month?
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