My Three-Ounce Altoids Survival Kit

I don't know who first thought of the idea of an Altoids survival kit, but an Altoids tin does provide a nifty container for organizing and protecting a few survival essentials. Below I have a list of what I put in mine, along with a photo or two. This is a pretty minimal kit, but that's the way I like it.

My Altoids Survival Kit

Three bandages

Seven aspirin

Twelve iodine tablets

Fourteen waterproof matches and striker

Two pieces of paper

Pencil

Razor blade

Pocket knife

Sewing kit

Seven yards of fish line

Three fish hooks

Five rubber bands

Two safety pins

LED light

One ziplock plastic bag

The latter is for carrying water, collecting wild foods, or whatever. The paper and pencil is for leaving notes in case I am lost and need to let potential rescuers or friends know which way I am headed and what the situation is. The LED light is actually bright enough to hike by at night (slowly), and weighs about one-half of an ounce.

The razor blade might be more than is necessary since I have the knife, but it weighs so little, and it is always good to have something to cut with. I suppose I could even shave, although that seems unnecessarily dangerous in a survival situation. As for the knife, I have cut down three-inch diameter trees with it to make walking sticks, so it seems to be pretty tough and functional for its size.

After taking the photos here I realized that I still had room in my Altoids survival kit for a small rolled-up piece of duct tape (can't forget this all-purpose item), which I added. With the Altoids tin a bit stuffed at that point, I used wrapped two rubber bands around it to be sure it stayed closed. At that point it still weighed less than three ounces total. It is small enough and light enough to carry in a shirt or jacket pocket - just in case my pack gets lost crossing a raging river.

Every chapter has tips for lightweight backpacking and wilderness survival.