by Gadgetgeek » Sat 12 May, 2018 11:58 pm
I have layers upon layers of redundancy, but that's part (bad) experience, part mental illness, part never being solo/ being defacto "guy who should have a solution"
A big factor is what emergency are you planning for? Loosing your pack? Getting lost and being late? Injury that prevents you continuing to move (include snakebite in this) If you are in the right mindset when you leave home, then you should have your gear already to go for most situations short of loosing your pack, and in that case, what are you reasonably still going to have on your body? This isn't meant as a criticism, just that I've seen more than a few people with all their backup gear packed with the main stuff, and it serving no purpose other than to add pack weight.
A couple things I've found slightly useful and light:
Hot melt glue
sail tape
Heavy thread and decent needle. A lot can be repaired with any two of those as the materials.
Other survival "oh *#%! we are stuck here and can't move until help arrives:
Firesteel or lighter and a "ranger band" chunk of bike inner-tube. Any firestarter without practice is pointless, so make sure you have both tool and skill, one to butress the other.
Water.. Controversial here, I carry a filter. If I get away from my filter, I'm going to rely on dehydration from not drinking water to kill me faster than my rescue can get to me. (yes I'm planning on someone coming to drag my sorry @ss back to civilization) So I don't so much care about water treatment apart from boiling. If I'm down to just my pockets, I'm going to be drinking the water.
I'd go farther on the art of the bodge, never let one thing cover two jobs, but have a way to make each bit of kit back up another in some way, that way if you loose or use one thing, you have not closed a door on another option.