What to put in a Basecamp First Aid Kit: Greenland Climbing Expedition

For our recent big wall climbing expedition in Southern Greenland, I was given the job of putting together a Basecamp first aid kit. As I am also a junior doctor, I felt quite motivated to do a good job of it. There were six of us on the trip, away in a remote location for 5 weeks. It was a useful exercise to think about what problems are likely to occur, what we can reasonably treat ourselves and what treatments might actually prevent someone from having to leave. It took some time to decide what to bring, so I thought it would be useful to share this list as an example to help in future expedition planning. 

Below is the entire list of what was in our basecamp first aid kit, with some notes. But first, I’ve included some brief discussion about how factors such as location, activity and group members influenced what items I chose to bring. I hope you find this useful as an example when putting together your own first aid kit; making sure to think about the specific needs for your expedition and how this might change what you decide to bring. 

Note: the Basecamp first aid kit stayed at basecamp at all times, so everyone also had their own personal first aid kit for bringing up the wall (e.g pain killers, tape, bandage, personal medications).

Everyone was responsible for bringing their own regular medications for known medical conditions. Each trip member should see their own GP prior to the expedition for travel advice and prescription medications. 

Location

Tasermiut sound is fairly remote, a long way from medical help. It took a flight, a helicopter and a two hour boat ride to get there. Reversing it to get out to a decent medical centre would likely take at least 2-3 days (or longer if it’s too stormy for the helicopter). So, we wanted a fairly extensive first aid kit. In addition, we only had to carry our gear for 20 minutes from the boat to our basecamp, so we could afford to have a heavier kit. In the end, our basecamp kit weighed 2kg and was the size of a briefcase. If you were walking for two days to basecamp and going to an area with a more established rescue service you might choose to slim it down. 

For us, because of our remote location and short walk, the extra kit I added was mostly for wound care - because wounds are often easy enough to manage remotely, but if we run out of dressings and it gets infected and doesn’t heal it could force someone to leave. So more dressings, more antibiotics, antiseptics, cleaning equipment. I also brought a small suture kit, which obviously you need to be trained to use so wouldn’t apply to most groups. 

Type of activity 

Being a climbing trip (as with any outdoor activity), the common issue we are likely to need to manage is injury - wounds, sprains or a fracture. So this formed a large part of the kit.

Our expedition was at sea level and relatively warm, so we didn’t need to think about issues like altitude sickness and frost bite that are important in many mountaineering expeditions. But other considerations in our environment were antihistamines for mosquito bites or antibiotics for tick bites. Also the possibility of getting bits of rock in an eye so we brought saline rinse and antibiotic eye ointment for this. 

The group 

Being a group of young climbers in good health it’s less likely we would need to treat a major medical problem like a heart attack or stroke. Instead we focus on issues that commonly affect young, healthy people on trips - e.g. injuries, constipation, fungal infections, allergies, gut infections, UTIs. 

It’s important to gather information from the group about known medical conditions and allergies. Everyone was responsible for bringing their own personal medications for these, but it’s still useful for someone in the group to know about it in case we need to help each other. It also may influence what you put in your kit to make sure you can treat the emergencies for their condition, e.g. an epi pen for anaphylaxis, inhaler for asthma, glucose for diabetics. 

List of all items in Greenland Basecamp first aid kit

*=need prescription/see your GP

WOUND CARE

• Strapping tape - 1 roll (everyone has their own roll as well)

• Gauze squares - 10x medium, 5x large

• Nice dressings with non adherent centre - 5x (I like Mepilex 10cm border dressings) 

• Cuticerin - 2x squares (good for grazes/ulcers/wounds that don’t have skin)

• Mefix breathable dressing - x1 roll to cut to sizes

• Opsite waterproof dressing - x1 roll to cut to sizes 

• Steri strips - x2 sheets (ran out after 1 wound, bring more)

• Skin glue - x2 (can use super glue)

• Compeed - x1 box of 5 (blisters)

• Standard big plasters - x1 box of 10

• Antiseptic cream eg betadine or dettol 

• *Crystaderm (stronger antiseptic, need prescription)

• Alcohol wipes x10

• 20ml syringe for irrigation (to wash out wound, do it many times)

• Gloves - x2 pairs (not sterile)

• Suture kit + sterile dressing pack + sterile gloves (unique for this trip - obviously can only bring if trained to use it)

GENERAL TOOLS

• scissors

• tweezers (for removing splinters and ticks)

• needle (for removing splinters)

• knife

EYES

• Saline 100ml (can buy eye wash bottle, or I had vials to go with the syringe. Saline Saline more comfortable but if run out can use water) 

• *Chloramphenicol antibiotic x1 tube (need prescription)

SPRAINS and FRACTURES

• Bandages - x3 types (soft crepe for leaving on longer, firm for immobilising, coban for self adherent and compression)

• Triangle sling with safety pin

• SAM splint - (buy online for $30, bring the instructions, moulds into shape needed, use to immobilise fracture for pain relief while travelling to hospital, can also use as neck collar)

MEDICATIONS

Pain relief:

• Paracetamol x100

• Ibuprofen x100

• (*for stronger pain relief in personal kit see your GP)

Antibiotics 

See your GP for recommendations based on your travel destination and most likely infections to occur. I wanted to prioritise antibiotics for wound infections.

Many stomach bugs/diarrhoea illnesses don’t need antibiotics, it depends on severity and duration of symptoms - discuss with your GP when to treat or not.

Make sure you write down the doses and guidance so you don’t forget. 

This is what we had for the group:

• *Cefalexin x2 courses (covers skin, UTI)

• *Augmentin x1 course (covers skin, ear nose throat)

• *Ciprofloxacin (gastro - from food)

• *Metronidazole (giardia - from water)

• 
  

Bowels and nausea:

• Laxsol - x50 tabs (for constipation)

• Loperamide - x10 tabs (temporary diarrhoea relief while travelling)

• Electrolytes x10 (the ones designed for diarrhoea that contain potassium)

• *Antiemetics - ondansetron, cyclizine 

• Antacids x20 (eg gaviscon)

Allergies and skin

• Antihistamines - loratadine x20

• Stronger Antihistamines - fexofenadine x20

• Antifungal cream (athletes foot, thrush)

• Hydrocortisone cream (skin reactions, eczema)

  
  

Didn’t bring this time but important to consider 

• Epi pen / adrenaline for anaphylaxis

• Asthma inhaler if relevant

• Any medications for known medical conditions 

• Covid tests - actually we had two members get Covid just as we arrived in Greenland and needed to buy Covid tests to isolate sick people from the rest of the group. Useful to stop everyone else’s trip being affected too!

• Warmth/shelter - e.g. emergency blanket, heat packs - not useful in basecamp kit as we had sleeping bags and cookers

• Altitude meds if relevant