Three years ago, I laid in an ultra-light backpacking tent, above timberline, and listened in profound

fears a high-speed storm raged around me.

Rain slammed my tent walls like continuous volleys of buckshot and the winds were so fierce they bent the poles of my tent until the tent wall pressed into my face.

And I was in a down sleepingsleeving bag, a very good one, but susceptible, as all

down is, to failure when wet. If my tent blew up, I would be in significant life-threatening danger from exposure and almost

certain hypothermia, and the storm was of such violence that no aircraft of any description

would be able to answer an SOS message from my in-reach device.

I'd been dropped solo in Alaska to hunt caribou.

The area was extremely remote and very dicey to get into with the bushplane

My equipment was of premium quality and cutting-edge design with two exceptions. I was in a light three season tent in genuine four season weather and

if my tent failed my down sleeping bag would also fail.

Folks today we're going to talk about gear and about forecasting potential survival circumstances that may dictate whether the gear you have is adequate.

Now, I don't usually do gear list type episodes, but in a recent

conversation with my friend Nathan Robinson while out hunting antelope with a new

type of Browning ammunition, he showed me a small kit of medical supplies he'd put together

after listening to a gear list episode I did years ago and mentioned that he's gone back

and referred to that episode several times.

Maybe, I thought, it's time to do another.

I've changed some of the gear I use since then.

Now, before I move on, let me just mention this. For those of you that would like to hear the rest of that solo caribou hunt story, you can go back to September of 2020 and listen to those episodes recorded journal style, audio journal style in the field.

They've been tremendously popular through the years,

and it was a profoundly affecting experience for me,

...