Pak-kit Survival Kit Pak-kit Survival Kit © 1995 E. Michael Smith The kit is labeled with a cutsy umlaut over the "a" in Pak. Why? Who knows. Maybe their marketeer wanted to take a trip to Germany... It comes packed in a plastic tube that I've since lost (after the end cracked and the wax goobered up the inside ...) The informational instructions are listed here, should you wish to inspect them. This kit was packaged in a clear plastic tube about 3 inches in diameter and 9 inches long with red plastic slip on ends. The label with table of contents (yellow and orange/red motif) shows through the plastic tube. I've since repacked what's left after the candle wax coated many of the bits into a Rubbermaid #12 60 Oz (l.7 liter) rectangular plastic tub. There is plenty of room to spare in the new pack for added goodies. Each class of stuff is now in it's own baggie as well. (First Aid vs food vs..) It is made by The Alpine Map Co., Boulder, Colorado 80301. I've forgotten where/when I bought it (maybe REI Co-op in the late '80s?) and let it live in my level 2 survival pack in the trunk of my car for a couple of years. I think it was about $10 or $12. I was buying one of several price points of kit to compare what you got and how well they held up. The contents, listed on the label, are: Tube tent (8 ft.), Signal Mirror, High Pitch Whistle, Basic First Aid (including adhesive bandages, gauze pads, butterflys and aspirin), Emergency notes (on first aid, fire building, weather, shelter, travel, wind chill, and hypothermia.), Candle, Flaresticks (2), Waterproof Matches, Nylon Cord (20ft), Safety Pin, Razor Blade, Aluminum Foil, Wire (2ft), Duct Tape (3ft), high impact waterproof container, Dextrose Cubes, Energy Bars (2), Bouillon Cubes (3), Tea Bags (3). The package also states "Wt. 16 oz./.45 kilograms". There is no copyright given on the list of contents, but the pak-kit name and a snowflake in a sunburst design are both (tm) marked. The 'directions' are generally OK, with the usual number of suggestions to do things that you don't have the materials to do (one example: They suggest purifying water with iodine tablets or bleach, neither of which is in the kit). The directions come on 3 'cards' that are really paper sheets about 3 1/8" x 5 3/8" (8cm x 13.5 cm). These are printed in a very very small type (6 point?), and would be difficult to read in a well lit room when not wax soaked... My general impression is that they have the usual instructions for building fires, making snow caves, making air rescue messages, etc. This pack, when opened, was about 1/4 useless. The wax candle had melted and soaked into about 1/4 of everything. The (very flat) cheap plastic whistle was not plugged and worked OK, but the 'high pitch' is very high and does not carry well at all nor is it heard well by older male ears after they get out of a noisy truck... The tube tent was stuck together, but still usable, with a modest patience while ungluing it. There is a nice nylon line to use to hold the tent up. The sugar cube, which they call 'dextrose' was not saturated, nor were the matches. The tea bags were history. The directions were modestly unreadable due to the paper becoming translucent with wax and letting both printed sides show at once. Also, they had taken on a bit of a pinkish hue from the package lable. Some of the bandaids and bandages were waxy and trash. My major complaint is that this kit is of modest real value. You are supposed to heat water you find, in some non-existant vessel (they state to make a cup from the aluminum foil...), over fuel that you find somewhere, to make a cup of tea and bouillon to drink while you sit in a tube tent. This kit would provide a minimum of medical supplies to cover a trivial cut, and an aspirin for your headache, and does have a very cheap plastic sheet to keep the rain off of you. There are modest signaling abilities (a mirror with no aiming feature and a useless whistle), but decent fire making. The 'flaresticks' are just pressed sawdust soaked with wax. Useful, but not essential. The 'energy bar' I ate was hard and of mediocre flavor, but had calories and better than nothing... I would not want to spend a long night in the forest in a storm with only this kit, but it could prove helpful for a mild spring day/night lost in an accommodating park. You would be far better served, in my opinion, by assuring you had the Bare Essentials covered before you started buying any kits cheap. Index to Expedient Camping (Crisis Kit) topics. Directory of Regions served. Copyright © 1995 NetSurf, Inc. All Rights Reserved.