Safety Gear for a Friend Heading Into the Backcountry Alone
For the friend, sibling, or partner venturing alone into the backcountry — the one who draws their own line across the map, whose trips are both a joy and a worry for those who love them. This set is built around what you hope they never need but want them to have: tools for staying found, signaling for help, and making it through an unexpected night out. Each item was chosen for reliability and simplicity over novelty — gear trusted by people who go far from the trailhead. Charge and test the powered pieces before a trip, and pair a compass with a paper map they know how to use. Send the one that feels most essential for their next trip. You do not need to send all of them.
TMM Editorial · May 2026
The Picks
Garmin inReach Mini 2 Satellite Communicator
The gift to send when you cannot stop thinking about them going alone. Two-way satellite text and an SOS button that work where no cell tower reaches, once a Garmin satellite plan is active (a monthly or yearly cost on top of the device). Set it up and send a test message before the first trip.
SOL Emergency Bivvy
Under four ounces: an emergency layer that helps hold in body heat if a day out turns into an unplanned night. The thing every solo hiker swears they will carry and then forgets. Send it; they will pack it.
Black Diamond Storm 500-R Headlamp
Waterproof to a meter, seven hours on high, a red night-vision mode that does not wreck dark-adapted eyes. The headlamp serious people actually take past treeline.
Garmin eTrex 32x Handheld GPS
For the friend who wants navigation that survives a dead phone battery. Garmin's workhorse handheld — barometric altimeter, electronic compass, twenty-five hours on two AAs.
Suunto MC-2 Mirrored Compass
A compass needs no battery, so it's the backup when the GPS goes flat, as long as they carry a paper map and know how to use the two together. Mirrored sighting, clinometer, luminous markings: the one many backcountry-trained friends already know by name.
Silva Ranger 2.0 Compass
Silva invented the modern orienteering compass; the Ranger 2.0 is its mirror-sighting model, with a built-in declination adjuster. Most compasses are balanced for one magnetic zone, so for trips south of the equator Silva's Ranger Global is the better pick.