Major injuries from hiking are rare. Walking doesn't tend to break bones or kill people. But, there are a whole bunch of smaller injuries and ailments that can make your day miserable. Being ready for the majority of them will make your trips more enjoyable and may help someone else that was not prepared.

For much more information about first aid in the outdoors, check out FirstAid Dude . He has information about a lot of the more common problems you may run into while hiking and camping.

First Aid Guidelines

If a member of your hiking party is injured, you need to follow three guidelines. The highest priority is first, followed in order by the other two:

• Stay Alive - yourself, others, and the victim. Especially yourself. If you are unable to help, then no one gets out alive.
• Stabilize Injury - stop the injury from doing further damage to the victim. Stop bleeding, remove them from the cause.
• Start Recovery - make the victim better. Fix the injury or ailment as much as possible.

You always have to keep yourself safe. Then, you need to ensure the survival of everyone else. This means getting the group to warmer shelter if one person is becoming hypothermic rather than having everyone stop to help that one person. This means running out of the way of a rockslide rather than jumping into it to save someone falling. If someone is injured or sick, you need to check that every action you are taking follows one of the three guidelines. If it does not, then it is probably not a necessary action.

Prevention

It is so much easier to provide first aid by preventing the need for it in the first place. Easily the biggest hazard for hikers is the environment - changes in weather or ill-prepared hikers get into the most trouble. Make sure everyone in your group has the necessary abilities to successfully complete the planned hike. Make sure they have proper clothing, plenty of water, and extra food. Everyone should have a small personal first aid kit and there should be one more complete kit for the group.

There are pages discussing specific preparation for hiking at altitude , hiking in heat , and hiking in cold that you should read.

Before you go hiking in a new area, find out about poisonous plants, snakes, insects, dangerous animals, and other possible hazards.

First Aid Kit

You can easily buy a ready-made first aid kit and there are some very good ones available through the links over on the right.
You may be able to save space by making your own, or by replacing some parts of a purchased kit. It is important that you know the purpose of and how to use every item in your kit - otherwise it's just extra weight.
You won't have much time to read a manual while administering to an injury.

Reading up on wilderness first aid or even taking a course about it can be very helpful. Medicine for the Backcountry by B. Tilton has a good reputation. If you are going into the backcountry, its a goo...