The Essentials

The following are items required to be carried on every search and training session. They can usually be assembled at a minimum expense.

1. 
   Apprpriate clothes and foot gear for both fair and foul weather
   Rain gear
   Minimum of five large, heavy duty plastic trash bags
   Water container of one or two liter capacity
   Food for 48 hours
   Head lamp (or flashlight) and second light source
   Candle with lighter
   Knife
   Compass
   Personal First Aid Kit
   Pen and Paper
   Whistle
   Two pairs of plastic gloves (provided by group)
   Day pack
   Two pieces of Perlon - Five feet and seven feet long (may be bought later)
   One locking D carabineer (may be bought later)
   Twenty feet of nylon webbing (may be bought later)
   Leather gloves (optional but highly reccommended)

When emergencies arise, any delay is dangerous. All members are asked to have The Essentials and other equiptment ready to go. If possible, keep search gear in a seperate backpack (a day pack will suffice). Otherwise, keep it all together in a desig nated area for transfer to our day-to-day backpack as needed upon callout.

In the past, occaisions have arisen in which members were selected to participate in searches based on who was better equipped for a given set of conditions. New members are urged to assemble The Essentials immediately and obtain other equipment as so on as possible.