I’m looking for a kit that will be OK for me and anyone I find lying at the side of the trail after a call. Just the usual minor crap as I won’t be attempting transplant surgery. I’ve not had a first aid qualification since I ran a windsurfing school. What would you advise?

Last time I had to buy one (for some event or other), I bought a little Lifeventure one from GoOutdoors. Seemed ok. It’s never been used though. 😀

Cheaper solution is to make your own. Mine tends to be emergency foil blanket, some simple adhesive dressings, tape, antiseptic wipes, painkillers, antihistamine tablets.

Don’t know what you’d add to that really.

+1 for Lifeventure. Their small basic one is good.

Only used it at BPW a few months back, a mate seemed to puncture his shin with a rock, went right to the bone. Glad to have it with me then.

What martinhutch said. A quick trip to a chemist and you can save some money and tailor it to your needs.

I have 4 mepore dressings of two different sizes, steristrips, antiseptic and alcohol wipes x4 two sets of gloves (not sterile but they are likely to protect you and the ‘casualty’ from excess dirt, oil etc) a few Ibruprofen and paracetamol tablets, a small foil blanket, a few plasters of different sizes a crepe bandage for making slings or binding dressings, a medium sized absorbent wound dressing and a small reel of micropore tape. In a sealed bag it weighs about 150 grams and is the size of a large wallet.

Inc. small bottle of Iodine. A tampon can be very useful for deep cuts.

Israeli dressing and a couple of triangular bandages according to the chap who did my two day outdoor first aid course last weekend. Seems I carry far too much stuff.

I stick a small ziplock back in my seatpack. A few fabric plasters, a few lint free dressings, gloves, wipes and a decent length of bandage.

It will do me for 99% of my injuries and would probably do a good first aid bodge for someone else until the real professionals get to the scene. Job’s to keep someone alive until the people who know how to fix them get there.

I never take tablets, if it’s another person and it’s a bad enough injury that you’re giving First Aid then they get nothing until the paramedics roll up.

Gaffer tape, big #3 or 4 ambulance dressing for general rides. Ability to summon help and know where you are and how to access from road/ helicopter landing site. Bit more if multiday adventures where minor cuts and blisters etc may become an issue.

Tom (paramedic)

In addition to many of the good suggestions above, I also carry a sachet of TeaTree based burn cream, sutures, tick tweezers and an Aspivenin bite/sting/venom relief gadget (owing to Vipers on the south coast). It all fits in 13cm x 10cm x 5cm soft pack.

I do a lot of family outings and will never forget the joy of having to remove a bee-sting from my wife’s eyelid with only a pair of nail scissors. and a distressed 2yr old. These days I go prepped!

tick removing tool, steristrips, some largish gauze pads sealed in packets and an elastic bandage

A few plasters; antiseptic wipes; a blister patch or two; a couple of safety pins. Beyond that it’s improvise – gaffer tape, spare shirt whatever.

If it’s serious, call MRT. Had to do this on Saturday for a woman who’d slipped and either sprained or broke her ankle. With the best will in the world she wasn’t going to be able to get the 800 metres to the road.

I never take tablets, if it’s another person and it’s a bad enough injury that you’re giving First Aid then they get nothing until the paramedics roll up.

Good point. The tablets are for my own non-serious aches, pains and hideous rashes, and aimed around allowing me to continue or get to the next bail-out. Not for other casualties, particularly if MRT or ambulance are likely to get involved at some point.

You need something to stop any serious bleeding and something to stop things moving. Some big dressings (or sanitary towels) and some gaffa tape should do the job.

Some gloves are a must to protect you from other people’s fluids.

I take a foil blanket and an energy gel in mine too.

I’ve seen basic and advanced kits on Silverfish UK’s site.

+1 make your own

Add in duck tape (folded, not on roll) of a couple of lengths, about 1m long.

Add plastic bags for waste, burns and keeping dressings dryish.

Sun cream quite useful too, not really first aid but just useful (don’t bother with this in winter though!) – I’d agree with foil blanket or some other mini shelter. Usual plasters and a couple decent sized dressings.

Foil blanket a little outdoor warehouse kit n gaffa tape. Oh and a mobile

Intresting reading this. I take the view that if a few ibuprofen and a plaster are all thats needed I or them will be fine without and if its a bloody great hole a jumper will do till back up arrives. I do always carry a foil blanket though to keep someone in shock warm.

300mg aspirin
(The hospital consultant thanked me for carrying and using it, when my buddy had a “silent” heart attack)

Mobile phone and first aid knowledge

A tampon can be very useful for deep cuts.

Is that so you can suck the blood out? Have you actually done a first aid course?

I agree with anagallis_arvensis mostly. I carry minimal stuff (when I even do carry anything). Stop bleeding, immobilise broken things.

Fabric triangular bandage, absorbent dressings, foil bag is the basics. My dressings are sanitary towels.

Never carried plasters, don’t see much point. I occasionally carry ibuprofen on really long rides (the kind where I get a headache from sleep deprivation). I carry gloves but they more often get used to keep my hands clean fixing bikes than first aid. Not bothered about wipes, chances are you would never get a wound clean in an outdoor environment so just stop the bleeding.

Some basic bike repair stuff can be used in 1st aid situations also. Gaffer tape is useful for immobilising things.

Thanks for the advice. I shall study it, make a decision and post the resulting Frankenpack.

Why do you want an absorbent dressing?

You want to stop bleeding not encourage it.

I’d go for iodine and super glue

Actually you prob don’t want to close up a wound until you can get it to a hospital and get it cleaned out properly, so no super glue, but iodine, gauze and gaffer tape would be good. You’ve also got water in your camelback to help clean it.

Tubigrip & Brufen, I always carry a couple of antihistamines for my own hayfever too.

Good point above on the aspirin. Maybe Drac could tell us if there are any risks/complications from just doling one of them out to someone who takes a funny turn as a preventative measure?

On second thoughts, perhaps too vulgar.

Stera strips ibuprofen gaffer tape space blanket gauze pad here

Same as MartinHutch + the small carpet tape.
Only point I’d make is vacuum pack emergency foil bag rather than blanket IMO.

stera strips, foil blanket, small/med bandage, gel
spare tube and duct & electrical tape wrapped round the minipump

Looking at high peak first aid in hope do a selection of courses based around outdoor environments
Has anyone done such a course and at what level is it based or is a general st johns course just as good for someone with no knowledge

I’ve just done a 3 day First Aider course (Green Cross, cheaper than the usual suspects but very good).

Best way would be getting it through your boss by explaining why he should have a First Aider onsite 🙂

Potions and lotions are OK for a personal first aid kit, but in a First Aider capacity, you can only help the conscious patient take what they have already been prescribed. The exception is you are allowed to use an Epi pen for life saving reasons, and if they are not carrying one, you can use someone elses if the 999 operator agrees.

It wasn’t an outdoor course, however, which I suspect would involve a bit more ingenuity with splinting bones and assisting the casualty to civilisation/ambulance.

High peak first aid are excellent, I did my 2 day course with them a year or so back. Nicola was a good tutor, and the other people helping out were medical professionals. Happy to answer plenty of questions, and scenarios carried out in their own woodland outdoor area.

Cheeky request…. If you b book with them, can you say I recommended you, then I get a free something or other next time I book a course!

Kit wise, it depends what I’m doing. Riding on my own locally, it’d be nothing or a mini live venture kit. If I’m leading a duke of Edinburgh group, it’s the same kit plus a larger one and any spare epipens, inhalers etc in addition to the ones kids carry for themselves. If I’m out on a big solo fell run, it’ll be a few plasters for blisters, some gaffer tape on my bottle and some strong painkillers in case I have to haul myself off the hill smashed up. I did manage to put a large hole in my shin in march and did a decent job of patching it up using a buff…

I think you need to consider 2 different possible situations here –

Minor scrape/cut – can be cleaned up with a wipe, covered in a plaster and get on with your day.

Major incident – needs hospital. Your only concern is to stabilise the casualty and stop things getting worse until the Pros arrive.
A couple of large dressings, a bandage and a roll of tape is about all you need, because you shouldn’t be getting anymore involved.

Gloves and small pair of scissors + tweezers also help.

I have all the above in a zip-loc bag inside a Poundshop pencil case.

Please don’t start squeezing superglue into cuts – you are not in the Marines, and all you’ll do is trap dirt/germs in there.

Matt (work first-aider, Scout first-aider and veteran of quite a few ‘bush first aid’ incidents)

Good point above on the aspirin. Maybe Drac could tell us if there are any risks/complications from just doling one of them out to someone who takes a funny turn as a preventative measure?

Depends on the funny turn. In theory it could be very helpful for someone suffering a suspected cardiovascular event such as a heart attack or ischaemic stroke (caused by a blood clot in a blood vessel supplying the brain). However, there is a less common form of stroke caused by actual bleeding within the brain, and it is possible that aspirin may worsen this. Also, someone having any kind of stroke may have significant difficulty swallowing, and a blocked airway isn’t the kind of complication you want.

Drac may have a different view, but I would take advice from the 999 operator at the time if a stroke/heart attack is suspected.

One of the risks of what we do is that if we have some kind of stroke while riding, we are far less likely to get the ‘golden hour’ treatments that are likely to make the outcome better.

I only ever take Nurofen and some Vaseline!
This thread is bit of an eye opener, so bookmarked for reference.

I carry a couple of bandages, paracetamol and ibuprophen for myself (to keep up with the young uns) a couple of plasters and micropore tape. foil blanket and some small capsules of saline solution.

personally im not trained in outdoor first aid (got work stuff but its no where near the same) and I think id be ok to treat a minor cut or wash some much out of someone’s eye. basically make them more comfortable. I think, unless your a professional first aider and hold a valid qualification, your probably doing more harm than good despite how many episodes of casualty you’ve seen. Phone for a pro.

weve had people ride home from our rides with everything from broken hands and concussion to broken collar bones etc. in my eyes theres nothing wrong with saying im hurt get me to a hospital (as many people from the cmbc group have done for me over the years, that reminds me I still owe quite a lot of beers)

however if your in the wilds then I think you need a propper full kit, sat phone helicopter on standby etc etc. (can you tell I worry too much)

Some first aid kits are actually pretty good and come with nice waterproof bag or container but I would not pay for more than 10-15€. I have one for each camelbak, have also added some plasters and few extra antiseptic wipes.