Why a Small Kit Makes a Big Difference on the Fells

There is a particular kind of day in the Lakes that begins with boots on at a car park near Buttermere and ends with a hobble back in the dark. Nothing dramatic happens — a knee gets scraped on a rocky step, a heel starts to rub on the climb up to Stickle Tarn, someone begins shivering after a long swim in cold water. On a lowland walk these are minor irritations. Three hours from the road, in a raw wind, with the light going, they become the reason a pleasant day turns into a long, cold epic.

Mountain rescue teams across Cumbria will tell you that a good number of call-outs begin with something small and entirely manageable. Your first aid kit is not there for catastrophes. It is there to stop small things becoming big ones, to keep you moving, warm and comfortable until you are back at the car. Here is what should be in it, and — just as importantly — how to use it.

Blister Plasters: Deal With Hot Spots Early

Blisters are the single most common reason a fell walk goes wrong, and they almost always announce themselves first as a hot spot. The moment you feel that warmth, stop and deal with it. Ten minutes now saves you three hours of pain later.

• Carry proper blister plasters, not thin fabric plasters. The hydrocolloid type cushions the area and stays put for days, even through a shower or a paddle.
• Clean and dry the skin thoroughly, then warm the plaster between your hands for a few seconds before pressing it on. Body heat makes it stick.
• Leave it alone once it is on. Do not peel it off to check — you will take the roof of the blister with it. Let it come away on its own over several days.
• Keep a strip of zinc oxide tape as backup. It is excellent applied directly over a known rub point before a blister forms, but it will not stick to wet skin, so dry the foot first.
• If a blister has already burst, clean it, cover it with a sterile dressing and tape it securely before adding a blister plaster on top.

Dressings and Tape for Cuts, Grazes and Twists

Rock is sharp, and fell paths are full of opportunities for a hand or shin to meet it. Pack a small selection rather than a single giant dressing.

• Sterile gauze squares and a couple of adhesive dressing pads in two sizes (roughly 5cm and 10cm) for cuts and grazes.
• A roll of conforming bandage to hold a dressing in place on a knee, elbow or hand where a plaster will not stay.
• Microporous tape for securing dressings, plus zinc oxide tape for strapping and support.
• Nitrile gloves in a small zip bag, and a few antiseptic wipes.

Clean a wound with clean drinking water before dressing it — grit left in a graze is a recipe for infection. Tape earns its place well beyond dressings: it can support a tweaked ankle for the walk out, strap a finger to its neighbour after a knock, or pad the edge of a boot that has started to rub. Learn to do this at home, on a dry kitchen floor, before you ever need to do it on a windswept col.

Pain Relief and Your Own Medication

Carry a small supply of paracetamol and ibuprofen, and know the doses. Ibuprofen is not suitable for everyone — check with a pharmacist if you have asthma, stomach problems or take other medication. An antihistamine is useful for bites, stings and nettle rashes.

Your personal medication is the part of the kit that matters most. If you carry an inhaler, an adrenaline auto-injector, insulin, a GTN spray or regular tablets, take enough for the trip plus an extra day, and keep it in your rucksack rather than in a bag left at the accommodation. Keep it inside a dry bag — cold tarn water and damp weather do nothing for either the medicine or the packaging. Tell the people you are walking with where it is and what it does.

The Emergency Blanket: Small, Cheap, Superb

A foil emergency blanket or lightweight bivvy bag weighs almost nothing and costs very little, yet it is the item most often left at home. After an injury, a soaking, or a long cold swim in a tarn, heat loss is the real danger, and it happens faster than most people expect.

Use it early. Get the person out of the wind, sitting on rucksacks rather than bare ground, and wrap the blanket around the torso first. If you are swimming in the Lakes, make it part of your routine: dry off, layer up, blanket round the shoulders, then eat something. The same sheet works as a windbreak while you change, a signal to others, or a dry patch to sit on.

Check It, Restock It, Know It

Go through your kit at the start of each season and before any big day out. Sterile dressings have dates for a reason, and so do plasters, medicines, antiseptic wipes and sun cream. Replace anything perished, gritty or past its date, and bin anything that has been soaked through.

Store the whole kit in a small dry bag in the top of your rucksack lid, not at the bottom where it will get wet. Then spend twenty minutes practising with it — tape an ankle, put on a blister plaster, wrap a blanket. A kit you understand is worth far more than a bigger one you have never opened.