Field repairs: what breaks, and what to carry to fix it

Equipment fails at inconvenient times, and the failures are surprisingly predictable. After enough trips you notice the same items breaking in the same ways, which means a repair kit can be small and specific rather than large and hopeful.

The universal items

Strong cloth tape. Wrapped around a pole or a water bottle rather than carried as a roll. It repairs shelters, patches clothing, splints a finger, secures a splint, holds a boot sole on, and reinforces a torn pack. If you carry one repair item, it is this.

Cord. A few metres of thin accessory cord. Replaces broken straps, guys out a shelter, lashes a splint, makes a boot lace, rigs a handline.

Cable ties. Absurdly effective. A handful weighs nothing and they repair packs, bindings, poles, snowshoes and skis.

Wire. A short length of thin, malleable wire fixes things tape cannot, particularly anything under tension or near heat.

A small multi-tool or knife with pliers, if your activity involves adjustable metal equipment.

Needle and strong thread, or dental floss, which is stronger than most thread and doubles as cord.

Activity-specific additions

Ski touring: a spare binding screw and the correct driver, a spare skin tip attachment, skin glue or a couple of straps to hold a failed skin on, a ski strap or two — the single most versatile item in ski touring — and a length of stiff wire.

Climbing: spare cord for rappel anchors, a rapid link, a spare belay carabiner, tape.

Paddling: a proper repair kit matched to your boat material. For inflatables that means patch material and adhesive that works on the specific fabric, tested at home. For composite boats, tape works well enough to get you off the water.

Camping: a pole splint — usually supplied with the tent, and usually left at home — plus patches for the shelter fabric and a spare guy line.

The failures that actually happen

Boot sole delamination. Frighteningly common in older boots. The sole peels away from the upper, usually starting at the toe. The fix is to wrap the whole boot tightly with cord or tape in a figure of eight, repeatedly, and walk carefully. It works well enough to descend. The prevention is checking your boots before a big trip and not using boots that have been stored unused for years — adhesives degrade with age even in a cupboard.

Pack strap or buckle failure. Cord and cable ties. A shoulder strap that has pulled out can be lashed back to the frame well enough to carry a load.

Zip failure. Hardest to fix properly. A separated zip on a jacket or tent door can often be closed with safety pins or cord threaded through the pull holes. Carry a few safety pins; they weigh nothing.

Tent pole snap. The splint sleeve slides over the break and gets taped in place. Without one, a tent peg or a stick and tape does the same job.

Skin failure. Wet glue is the common problem. Ski straps holding the skin to the ski at tip and mid-point will get you home. Drying the glue against your body inside a jacket during a break sometimes revives it.

Punctured sleeping mat. Find the hole by listening or by submerging in water if available. Patch, or if you cannot, insulate with spare clothing and accept a poor night. This is uncomfortable rather than dangerous, but in genuine cold a failed mat is a serious loss of insulation from the ground.

The mindset

Field repair is not about restoring equipment to working order. It is about getting the item to function well enough to walk out, and it is fine for the result to be ugly.

Think in terms of function rather than form. A broken pole is a length that needs to be rigid — anything rigid and taped will do. A failed buckle is two things that need to be held together — a knot works. A torn shelter is a hole that needs to not let water in — tape on both sides.

Prevention beats repair

Check gear before trips, not after. Look at boot soles, binding screws, harness stitching, rope for flat spots, shelter seams and pole shock cord.

Replace things that are wearing out at home rather than discovering them in the field. Test new equipment somewhere with an easy exit before committing to it in a remote place.

And practise a repair or two on old gear. Knowing that your adhesive actually bonds to your boat's fabric is knowledge best acquired in a garage.