Kathmandu Survival Kit v2 Review

Emergency situations can be hard to plan for and being prepared is not always as easy as it seems but Kathmandu have defiantly made it easier to be prepared with their great Survival kit. This kit has all the items essential for survival out in the bush and is a compact solution to the problem of being ready for when the worst hits you out on the hiking trail.

What is the box:

Let’s start with what you get in the box because it is quite a lot, all of the following comes with your survival kit.

• A Pencil

• Waterproof Paper

• Flint Fire Steel

• Cotton Wool (2 Pieces)

• A Button Compass

• Whistle

• Survival Mirror

• Wire Saw

• Multi Tool

• Snare Wire

• Fishing Kit

• Safety Pins (2 Pieces)

• Duct Tape

• Zip-Lock Bag

• Braid Nylon Cord

• Carabiner (Attached to corner of kit)

So what do we think of the kit?

As you can see, there is a lot of stuff in this small little box and just from looking at this list you can definitely see that there is very few things that have been left out of this kit making it perfect for those of us who want to remain safe out on the trail while also not needing to build our own kits. Many of the items in the box help with the essentials of survival such as fire lighting, collecting food, navigation, tent patching and even some tools that could help with shelter construction. Having all these tools handy will help ensure your safety and survival when you find yourself in trouble and can work hand in hand with many pieces of equipment you might already have inside your bag such as an emergency first-aid kit.

Now you have a good idea of what you get in the box it might be a good time to look at what other things you need to take into account when bringing this kit with you such as the weight of the box. Weighing 186g, it is relatively heavy but for what you get in the box it is almost certainly worth packing for peace of mind if not the safety that it can bring. The box itself is also very small and compact being only 10cm x 12cm meaning that it can fit easily into almost any pack no matter how small or big your bag is meaning that this kit is accessible to pretty much every hiker.

Though this kit may be a great piece of gear, it isn’t all great news as the kit does have a few issues and the first is the button compass, because of space and weight limitations the button compass included in the kit is a little small meaning navigation using it can be hard at times and makes finding a bearing hard. On top of the small button compass another problem found with the kit we tried is that the mirror can sometimes come a little loose due to the curved shape of the boxes corners, this means that on some kits the mirror can come off the lid of the box but this was only on my kit and I am unaware about.

Overall this kit by Kathmandu is a fantastic safety tool that should be carried by almost every hiker, the items inside are all the essentials needed for survival and is a very well thought out and makes it an equipped piece of gear that is very versatile. The design is very hard to fault and you can see that great thought has been put into this product and this has undoubtedly made it very successful at achieving its goal of being a ‘Survival Kit’. If you are considering how to remain safe out on the trail then I would defiantly suggest picking one of these up as it is a great piece of gear to keep in your pack.

For this review I used the Kathmandu, Survival Kit Case v2 – Orange which costs $49.98 AUD, if you’re looking at buying this kit first make sure that you will actually bring it with you often so you’re not wasting your money. Also make sure to look at other websites and brands to find the cheapest and the best one for you so you are not left out of pocket, some major outdoors retailers will have their own range so it's important to see what they have got.

Written by Josh Welch