The list called the Ten Essentials was first written down in the 1930s by The Mountaineers, a club out of Seattle. It has been updated more than once since then, most recently in the ninth edition of Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills, which came out in 2017 and is still the working reference today. The modern version is organized as ten systems rather than ten objects, which is a more useful way to think about it. A compass and a paper map are one system. A headlamp and spare batteries are another. The point is what each item does for you, not the item itself.
I am 78. I do not climb anything anymore that requires a rope, but I still walk a fair number of desert trails out here in Sun City West, and I have packed for plenty of trips up in the Mogollon Rim country over the years. Three things matter when you are putting a pack together at this stage of life: weight, redundancy, and the honest acknowledgment that something will go wrong eventually. The Ten Essentials are designed for exactly that third point.
1. Navigation
A topographic map of the area, in a zip-top bag, plus a baseplate compass. That is the minimum. A handheld GPS unit or a phone running Gaia GPS or CalTopo is fine to add, but it is not a substitute. Batteries die. I check the map before I leave the truck and again at any junction. If you are going somewhere genuinely remote, a personal locator beacon or a satellite messenger like a Garmin inReach is worth the subscription. I carry one. My children insisted, and they were right.
2. Sun protection
Broad-spectrum sunscreen at SPF 30 or higher, sunglasses that block UVA and UVB, and a hat with a brim. Skin that has spent seven decades in Arizona does not need any more sun damage. Reapply the sunscreen every two hours; that is what the dermatologists have been saying for years and it has not changed. Long sleeves in lightweight UPF-rated fabric are more comfortable than they sound.
3. Insulation (extra clothing)
The rule I learned a long time ago: pack for the temperature at the highest point on your route, after sunset, in bad weather. Not the temperature in the parking lot. A light wool or synthetic base layer, an insulating midlayer, a wind shell, and a rain shell. Cotton is a poor choice in cold weather because it loses its insulating value when it is wet. Wool and most synthetics do not.
4. Illumination
A headlamp, not a hand-held flashlight. You want both hands free. Modern LED headlamps from Petzl, Black Diamond, or Nitecore weigh next to nothing and run for many hours on a single set of AAAs or a small lithium-ion cell. Carry spare batteries. I check mine before every trip, the same way I checked instruments before a site survey.
5. First-aid supplies
A small kit, but a real one. Adhesive bandages of two or three sizes, gauze pads, medical tape, antiseptic wipes, blister treatment (moleskin or hydrocolloid pads), an elastic wrap, tweezers, and any prescription medications you take daily plus a one-day reserve. If you are over 60, throw in a few aspirin tablets. They are still the standard advice in the field for suspected cardiac symptoms while help is on the way.
6. Fire
A reliable lighter, plus waterproof matches in a sealed container, plus a small amount of tinder, such as a few cotton balls smeared with petroleum jelly. Three sources of ignition is not overkill. It is what redundancy looks like when the consequence of failure is hypothermia.
7. Repair kit and tools
A small folding knife or multi-tool, a few feet of duct tape wrapped around a trekking pole, a length of paracord (about 25 feet of 550-pound test is plenty for a day hike), and a few zip ties. If you carry a stove or a water filter on longer trips, learn what spare parts each of them needs and pack those too.
8. Nutrition (extra food)
Pack what you plan to eat, and then add one extra day's worth of calories that does not need cooking. Energy bars, jerky, hard cheese, dried fruit, peanut butter packets. The old advice about lightweight, high-protein, non-perishable foods has not changed. The point of the extra is that you do not eat it on the planned hike. It rides in the bottom of the pack.
9. Hydration (extra water and treatment)
This is the one item where the 2026 advice has shifted from what the older articles said. The CDC's current guidance is that filtering followed by chemical treatment is the safest approach in the backcountry, particularly for Cryptosporidium, which iodine and chlorine alone do not reliably kill. Carry more water than you think you need (a liter per hour of hiking in hot weather is a reasonable starting figure), know where the next reliable water source is, and bring a Sawyer Squeeze, a Katadyn BeFree, or a similar 0.1- or 0.2-micron filter. Tablets are a backup, not a primary system.
10. Emergency shelter
This is the item people leave behind most often, and it is the one that turns a missed turn into a survivable night out. A heat-reflective bivy sack, sometimes called an emergency bivvy, weighs about three or four ounces and costs around fifteen dollars. SOL makes a well-known one. A large contractor-grade trash bag works in a pinch. Either is better than nothing.
A note on footwear and the pack itself
The original article led with hiking boots and a backpack, and I will not skip them. They are not on the Ten Essentials list because they are presumed; you cannot hike without them. Two practical points for the 60-and-up reader. First, modern trail runners with a rock plate are a defensible alternative to a heavy boot for most non-technical day hikes; the lighter weight is easier on aging knees. If you have weak ankles, stay with a mid- or high-cut boot. Second, fit your pack at a real outdoor store with weight in it, not online. The hip belt should carry roughly 80 percent of the load. If it does not, the pack does not fit.
The takeaway
The Ten Essentials list is almost a hundred years old. It has lasted because it works. Pack the systems, not a checklist of brand names. Tell someone where you are going and when you expect to be back. Hike with a companion when you can; if you cannot, scale the trip down accordingly. None of this is dramatic advice. It is the same advice the Mountaineers have been giving since the Hoover administration, refined a few times for new gear. There is a reason engineers like checklists, and there is a reason the people who write the search-and-rescue reports keep recommending this one.
