If you drift away and want to signal the mother ship, on sunny days, it is more adapted and efficient than the bright colored 3 foot tube. Face the sun with the mirror and project its reflection on your hand. Move hand and mirror in synch until hand faces the objective -boat, airplane- with the sun reflection still showing on the hand. Remove the hand and fine tune the aim with the hole in the mirror. Keeping the sun's reflection on the hand while aiming at the target insures you that you are actually signaling it.

I went on. a semi-survival trip to the desert remote corral ring of Clipperton in Dec 2011/Jan 2012.Nobody should go anywhere without one.

I went on. a semi-survival trip to the desert remote corral ring of Clipperton in Dec 2011/Jan 2012. Because of the weather, I had to swim in rough heavy surf pushing a couple of dry bags. "Heavy" equipment stayed behind and the liner was my sleeping bag. small, light and warm enough combined with a travel hammock and tube tent to keep my body heat. Adaptability is key in such trips. Plan A, B and C are required. That was plan B. No tent nor sleeping bag. You don't want to know my plan C!.

It worked really well in a permanently windy condition with daily tropical rainstorms. I was sleeping in a regular hammock and I inserted the hammock in the tube tent. At night, to preserve my body heat, I pulled the tent over and around me and tucked it in to prevent noisy flapping, it was also protecting me from my daily wake up tropical showers. in the morning. I did not use it on the ground because of its lack of doors. Land crabs owned the night and I did not want them to think of me as a new protein source...

I went on. a semi-survival trip to the desert remote corral ring of Clipperton in Dec 2011/Jan 2012.Nobody should go anywhere without one. it worked really well in a permanently windy condition with daily tropical rainstorms.

I tested the matches and they worked fairly well in a permanently windy condition. I also had windproof matches that were better adapted to the situation.

It would be wonderful to have enough supplies of everything to sit still for practical forever, like that movie “Blast From The Past” in which Christopher Walken had a self substained safe house that could last as long as someone lived there. Unfortunately a few of any of us would ever have the multi-millions of dollars necessary for such a place to be constructed. We can all wish though.
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Small and sturdy. Great kit, but the quality is not worth the price. I bought two of these kits. One for my coat pocket and one for my pack.
Since gear only works if you know how to use it, I challenged my 11 year old son to a fire starting contest. We each took one of the strikers from the SOL Origin. I got my fire going in a few strikes, but he was having a hard time getting sparks. I went over to show him how dad does it. It turned out that he was doing it right, but the flint had come loose in the striker and got jammed in the wheel.
Maybe it was just bad luck, but I would have been SOL if I was stranded with that bad striker. Plus, the rubber grip fell off of the striker that I was using.

Many people fail to appreciate how tenuous their situation really is in the winter mountains. A slight misjudgment 100 yards off trail during the last run of the day and the only person who may notice is the night watchman who sees your car still in the lodge parking lot at midnight. A small survival kit is not a "get out of trouble free" card or a "stupid license", but can reduce a dire disaster into a very uncomfortable night out. Everyone should carry something.
- 2 large plastic leaf bags (shelter)
- about 20 feet of thin orange nylon twine (masons line)
- two tea candles & a small chunk of waxed news paper
- cigarette lighter/water proof matches
- a couple of candy bars (high calorie)
- a small piece of heavy tin foil (candle/tender platform)
- orange plastic whistle on a cord (metal freezes to your lips)
- ultra small bike head lamp (with a flash setting)
- a few small chemical warmer packets (under the arms, inside the loosened ski boots, etc)
This is in addition to the usual cell phone, extra glove liners and light hat I normally carry. Had not thought of a sterile dressing/sponge but will add that.