Camp Bassfish
23rd February 2016, 04:40 AM
Little real life story for you. Went hiking on Panther Mountain in the Catskills last Saturday. Trails were rocky and covered in slowly melting ice. We were over a mile in and 1,000 feet above the trailhead and in 30 mph winds. We were hiking with microspikes on, but despite that my girlfriend took a nasty spill. She cracked her head on one of the rocks and opened up a 3 inch long by half inch wide gash above her left eye. Luckily (if you can even see it that way) we had a first aid kit in our back pack. I grabbed the kit and set to getting the bleeding stopped ASAP and trying to assess whether she was going to be able to make it down or would I need to go for help. I opened the first aid kit, and much to my dismay, there was very little in there that was helpful. Yes, there was gauze and a small roll of tape, some antiseptic as well. But no butterflies or larger bandages. The kit resembled something you’d use in the little league parking lot for a scrapped knee, not for real first aid. Long story short, I did manage to close the wound enough to stop most of the bleeding and she was able to slowly make it off the mountain (impressive in its own right). It took 5 hours from the time of her fall to when I got her to the ER. She received 25-30 inside and external stitches to close the wound.
My point of this is to look at your first aid kit. Make sure it has what you may need in a real life emergency. I was guilty of just grabbing one off the shelf of the Sporting Goods store and throwing it in our pack w/o looking it over very well. I could have cost us a night on a mountain, or at the very least awaiting rescue. You never want to have to use your kit, but you better make damn sure you have what you need should you have to. We were very lucky last weekend.
My point of this is to look at your first aid kit. Make sure it has what you may need in a real life emergency. I was guilty of just grabbing one off the shelf of the Sporting Goods store and throwing it in our pack w/o looking it over very well. I could have cost us a night on a mountain, or at the very least awaiting rescue. You never want to have to use your kit, but you better make damn sure you have what you need should you have to. We were very lucky last weekend.