Emergency Gear: When Everything Else Fails

Emergency gear is different from every other category.

Primary, Alternate, and Contingency gear help you continue.
Emergency gear helps you survive.

This is the equipment you rely on when plans collapse, conditions become dangerous, or help is not immediately available.

Emergency gear should not be optimized for convenience.
It should be optimized for reliability under stress.

Good Emergency gear is:

Life-preserving
Highly dependable
Simple to use

Examples of Emergency gear include:

First aid and trauma supplies
Emergency signaling or communication tools
Navigation and location devices

Emergency planning is not pessimistic.
It is responsible.

You don’t carry Emergency gear expecting to use it.
You carry it because when it’s needed, nothing else will do.

You can see our current Emergency gear recommendations here:
👉 Emergency Gear Recommendations

With all four tiers in place, the next step is keeping your system current — reviewing gear periodically and adapting as conditions change.