Burning Man first-aid kit

The Survival Guide puts an extensive first-aid kit on the must-bring list and then does not name a product. The BRC first-aid booklet is the city's personal list. This page is the shopping version of the small problems: a blister, a dusty cut, dry eyes, sun on the neck. Nothing here is a diagnosis, a dose, or a reason to skip their booklet.

We are an independent outfitter. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Burning Man Project. The event name is used so you know which week this gear is for.

We are outfitters. We are not your clinician. If this page and the booklet disagree, follow the booklet and the people at the medical tent.

The pouch

Buy a packed kit, then open it at home. If it is two bandages and a wish, add the missing pieces before you leave. Dressings, an antiseptic you will use, blister care, and your own prescriptions in the bottles they came in, with your name on them. A kit is not a place to decant pills into a baggie. The pouch lives where you can find it in the dark, not at the bottom of the costume bin. One small kit rides in the day bag. The box stays at camp.

The camp first-aid kit link is a search. Kit contents rotate. Read the list on the page you open. Hand sanitizer at 60 percent alcohol or more is the must-bring line, the step before you eat and after the porto. It does not replace water, and it is not a rinse for filthy hands.

Blisters and dust

Moleskin goes on the hot spot the hour you feel it, on skin that is still intact. Waiting until it is a bubble is how the week becomes a limp. Tape gives up once the skin and the roll are dusty. A self-adherent wrap sticks to itself, which is why it holds. The Coban listing we use says it contains latex. If latex is a problem for you, skip that wrap. Cut the tails and pocket them. A loose tail is moop. A foot you cannot walk on is a medical tent.

Moleskin in the day bag. Coban at camp, with the latex line read before you buy it. Socks, the vinegar tub, and the longer foot routine are playa foot care.

The day bag

The hat and the sunscreen are the plan. Aloe is the comfort after a minor burn, on skin that tolerates it, once you are in the shade. Follow the label. Lubricant eye drops live in the day bag for the grit that got past the goggles. Keep the tip clean. A saline spray is the nose wash you can do without setting up the camp rinse. One roll of wrap. If the eye does not settle, or breathing is hard, that is a medical tent.

Aloe gel, Refresh Tears, and Simply Saline are the small bottles. Lip balm and mineral sunscreen live in the same pouch. Liquid I.V. goes into water you already brought. Read the sodium. The dust note covers the goggles and the respirator, which prevent more of these errands than the pouch does.

When it is a medical tent

Go for trouble breathing, chest pain, a deep cut, a burn that blisters, confusion, a collapse, a person who stops sweating and feels wrong in the heat, or anything you would not treat on a friend at home with a bandage. Tell them what you already took. Bring the labeled bottles. The pouch is for the small day. Their stations are for the rest. We are not going to write the protocol they already printed.

• —A kit you opened at home, plus moleskin.
• —Your own medicines, labeled, in their bottles.
• —A wrap you checked for latex.
• —Drops and saline you know how to use. Follow the label.
• —Sanitizer in the basket.
• —Electrolytes in water you already counted.
• —A medical tent for the problems that are not small.