Are the 10 Essentials Actually Essential?

Advice for what to carry on a day hike

Welcome back to Between A Mossy Rock And A Hard Place, the fortnightly advice column for all your outdoorsy conundrums!

Thanks to Ben for submitting this week’s question:

What do you carry on a day hike? I know the “correct” answer is to always bring ALL the 10 essentials, but I want to see your actual packing list. I think it’s ridiculous to bring a firestarter on a five mile loop at a busy state park, but my buddy disagrees.

I’ll be honest, I don’t carry all of the ten essentials on all of my day hikes. Sometimes I only bring a bottle of water. My risk tolerance varies with the weather, location, and length of the hike, so my packing list varies.¹

Before I dive into my gear, let’s review the ten essentials—the items that would be useful, or even lifesaving, in an emergency situation while recreating outdoors. The concept was created by The Mountaineers and has been tweaked over the decades as new technologies (like satellite messaging devices) have become common. It’s helpful to think of the list as ten categories rather than ten specific items.

Depending on which resource you consult, the category names might differ slightly, but I will follow the names used by the National Park Service:

• Navigation

• Sun protection

• Insulation

• Illumination

• First aid supplies

• Fire

• Repair kit and tools

• Nutrition

• Hydration

• Emergency shelter

With appropriate items from each category, you will be equipped to self rescue or to survive an unexpected night in the woods—for example, if you break a leg and have to wait for help to arrive. When you’re backpacking, you are already carrying what you need to spend a night in the woods, but when you’re day hiking, you typically are not. It is important to think about your safety plan before you need it because a few lightweight items can make a big difference in a bad situation.

An emergency blanket can also make a lunch break on a snowy day a little more comfortable!

So what do I bring on a standard day hike? If someone told me we were going on a hike with no other details, these are the items that I would carry—because a lot of this stuff just lives in my daypack! Where applicable, I’ve included the category that each item fits into: