Ok Blazer, I'll be the stand up guy that I am and apologize to you, as a new member here; for showing my bias towards doing a bit of research myself before I pose a question.

Do you think you are the first person to join this forum and ask such a basic question? No, I did'nt think so; what you failed to include in your post were more specific items such as your personal experiences with gear, and where you intended to use it.

Have you ever zipped up a dead human in a body bag; after finding them dead from the elements with 'seemingly' perfectly adequate equiptment by their side? I have, more than a dozen times in the past 35 years. Did it make me feel superior to them because I was the one doing the zipping? No, it humbled me to the point that I am now regularly willing to make an a** out of myself to save your family from having to deal with the same. I gave years of my life volunteering my services as a volunteer SAR and tracker; I have 35 years of real life experience in the bush, deserts, tropical areas, and the ocean. Should I just keep my knowledge to myself about the risks I have taken; or let you learn the 'hard way' <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> I stick my neck out everytime I post here BECAUSE I have seen death, and come pretty da*n close myself a few times. Case in point, go down to 'Off Topics' and look at Earthling's Seaweed adventure photos. Yeah, that's a 60 foot sailboat that I built with my own 2 hands, sailed halfway around the World alone; and ended up aborting the trip because I suffered a mild concussion 300 miles offshore. You see that photo of the guy with no shirt, manchu moustache? that's me, 3 days before I got to a harbor and collapsed over the wheel of my boat while I was motoring in. A few folks on other boats witnessed this and came to my aid.I would've likely crashed into either another vessel or run ashore, dying in the process had it not been for them. I feel the same way here, if I see a new member heading for shore unconcsicous I yell 'Hey newbie!". I'd much rather you be pissed at me than have you end up like the guy who 'thought' he was prepared to go backpacking and died in the Ozarks last month 10 miles from the trailhead, WITH all his high tech gear right next to him. Yeah, cause of death unknown, I still say hypothermia and I'm sticking to it from what I know of the case.

Welcome Blazer, I have no idea if you're 9 or 99. I do not wish to have folks 'grab n go' with info from here; only so we can read about their sudden demise on a trail somewhere, excuse me for being so rude to you, no honestly, it's your life.