Fix Anything in the Backcountry with These 9 Weightless Tools

Tent pole sleeves

Tent pole sleeves are much easier and more durable to use than splinting a pole with a stick or a tent stake with duct tape, zip ties or paracord—and most will fit around tent stakes so you don’t need to take up extra space in your first-aid kit with them. If your tent or shelter comes with a tent pole sleeve, it will be sized appropriately, but you can also buy sleeves from third-parties like MSR. Most tent-pole sleeves, like MSR’s Tent Pole Repair Splints, come in two width sizes (0.51 inch, 0.46 oz. and 0.63-inch, 0.63 oz.), and are about 5-inches long.

Buy Now; $5-15

Keep the rest of these repair items—all tiny and easily lost—packed inside your First Aid Kit

Tenacious Tape

Duct tape is good for a lot of stuff, but never the best solution. Using it to patch a hole in your inflatable pad? Not going to last too long. Fixing a shoe? You’ll limp into town with half an insole flapping off. This is where Tenacious Tape shines. It won’t leave a sticky residue and is better at repairing tears in fabrics, whether it’s mesh on shoes, shelter fabric, a tear in your pants, or your backpack. Gear Aid, the company behind Tenacious Tape, offers the tape in small, .6-oz rolls, pre-cut patches, and mesh patches.

Buy Now; 3” x 20” for $4.95

Zip Ties

Zip ties aren’t as durable as carabiners or paracord, but can help reconnect all sorts of things in a jiffy. If you’re using a bladder with a tube that’s loose, a zip-tie can make sure it doesn’t slip off the fitting. Likewise, a zip tie makes an excellent replacement for a broken zipper fob. A couple of them can be used to reattach a shoulder strap with a busted buckle. We recommend carrying at least four, 3-inch zip ties—they don’t even register a weight on our postal scales. 

Buy Now; 200-pack for $10

Super Glue

Super glue is useful for any repairs that aren’t meant to flex much, like a crack on a plastic buckle, a carbon-fiber pole, or to fix broken sunglasses frames. It may not be a permanent fix, but it can help repair minor issues before they become major issues. Super glue can also be used to treat minor cuts since it instantly bonds to skin—but that also means you need to be careful of bonding your fingers to gear, dirt, or anything else. Each single-use tube of Scotch Super Glue Liquid weighs just 0.17 ounces.

Buy Now; $3.60 for a four-pack 

Seam Sealer

Seam sealer comes in handy for any necessary waterproofing repairs like the leaky seam of a tent or rain jacket, or repairs that need to remain flexible, like the sole of a shoe. Gear Aid’s Seam Grip WP, our top pick, entered Backpacker’s Gear Hall of Fame for its ubiquitous uses in 2018. The downside? It takes about 12 hours to fully cure.

Buy Now; $7.50 for a 1 oz. tube

Sewing Kit

For anything that can’t be glued or taped together—like a blown-out shoe, or a backpack panel—a sewing kit is still an essential piece of gear aid. Zpacks offers an ultralight sewing repair kit (0.35 oz.) with 75 feet of Kevlar thread—you know, the stuff they use in bullet-proof vests—and comes with a hook-shaped needle. Add-in a couple of safety pins, to help hold fabric sides together while sewing them.

Buy Now; $4.95