KitsWinter
Winter Field Kit
What changes when the forecast low goes below freezing — and what quietly stops working if you do not change it.
Winter is not the three-season kit plus a warmer coat. Two things on the standard list actively fail in the cold: hollow-fibre water filters are destroyed by freezing, and lithium headlamp cells lose most of their capacity below −10 °C.
Ground conduction, not air temperature, is what ends a cold night. The pad matters more than the bag, and it is the item people under-buy most often.
Cold-weather sessions carry additional gear requirements and pre-session screening. Check the session addendum — it is the controlling document, not this page.
What fails in the cold
Swap or supplement these before a winter session. This is the section that actually matters.
Aquatabs
Aquatabs Purification Tablets
Chemical backup that weighs nothing, cannot freeze, and has no moving parts to fail.
Meets L1-WAT-03
Therm-a-Rest
Therm-a-Rest NeoAir XTherm NXT
An R-7.3 inflatable pad. Overkill for July, and the reason people sleep through a February field session instead of enduring it.
Meets L1-SLP-02
Petzl
Petzl Actik Core
A 600-lumen headlamp with a red mode and a rechargeable core that swaps for AAAs when the battery dies in the cold.
Meets L1-LIG-01
Layers
No cotton next to skin, per L1-CLO-01. This is not a preference.
Icebreaker
Icebreaker Merino 200 Oasis Base Layer
A 200 g/m² merino base layer. Warm when damp, and it does not start to smell on day three.
Meets L1-CLO-01
Tools and cordage
Cold makes everything take longer. A saw beats an axe when you are tired.
Bahco
Bahco Laplander Folding Saw
A 190 mm folding pruning saw that cuts green and seasoned wood faster than an axe twice its weight, and fits a jacket pocket.
Meets L1-CUT-03
Morakniv
Morakniv Garberg
A 109 mm full-tang Scandinavian fixed blade — the least interesting knife on this page, and the one we would hand a first-time student.
Meets L1-CUT-01
Atwood Rope MFG
Atwood 550 Paracord (30 m)
Seven-strand 550 cord. Thirty metres covers a tarp rig with enough left for repairs and the knot practice the syllabus assumes.
Meets L1-COR-01
Fire and first aid
Light My Fire
Light My Fire Swedish FireSteel 2.0 Army
A 12 mm ferrocerium rod rated for roughly 12,000 strikes. Works soaked, works at −30 °C, works with cold hands.
Meets L1-FIR-01
Suunto
Suunto M-3 NH
A northern-hemisphere baseplate compass with adjustable declination — the tool the Level 1 navigation module is taught on.
Meets L1-NAV-01
Adventure Medical Kits
Adventure Medical Kits Ultralight/Watertight .7
A personal kit sized for one person for a weekend — blister care, wound care, and the basics, in a dry bag.
Meets L1-MED-01
This is a shopping list, not a requirement
NBWSR does not require any particular brand, and nothing on this page is a condition of certification. The controlling document is the session-specific gear addendum sent to registered students 14 days before start — if it disagrees with this page, follow the addendum.
Bring what you already own if it meets the clause. Instructors check kit on day one and would rather see honest gear than new gear.