Tested outdoors gear is a dandy choice for gifts

Inside the case is life, or more specifically the keys to survival if things go badly sideways.

There is a knife -- to be specific, an A.G. Russell Featherlite general purpose ($34.95 @ www.agrussell.com). It too has been slightly modified. A smaller release had to be made for the locking mechanism on the knife to narrow it to fit in the aforementioned case -- a GSI 420 (look for these or similar at AMH, Mountainview Sports, Sportsman's Warehouse or REI, or go online to www.campmor.com)

Along with the knife, there is room in this case for a mini Bic lighter (50 cents to $2 almost anywhere), a dozen or so strike-anywhere matches, and half-dozen or so Coghlan "emergency tinder" tabs ($4.50 at www.rei.com) in a small plastic bag. These are cotton balls impregnated with what appears to an alcohol paste similar to Fire Ribbon.

Whatever the accelerant, the tabs burn well and for several minutes. With these, a little knowledge of fire-building technique, and the other tools in the neck case, it is possible to get a fire going almost anywhere in all but the most horrendous of weather and terrain.

And fire, especially in Alaska, oft remains the essence of life. That is why this case -- it's almost too little too be called a "survival kit, although that's sort of what it is -- is first on the list of things carried nearly always.

Even when traveling glaciers through places where there is no material to make a fire, the neck case goes along because a warm, dry Bic lighter with which to start a stove is always handy, as is a sharp knife.

If you're looking for a thoughtful Christmas gift for someone who regularly inhabits the wild, you could do worse than to stuff her, or his, stocking with the items mentioned here or similar, which is why I am writing about them now along with the other things I carry. There might be some Christmas ideas here that lead to a gift that someday really does make a difference for somebody.

The fire case is first on the list, but there are a couple other things worth noting that are regularly taken along:

• An onion-skin-thin wind shell. I own several, but the one that goes along most is a hooded Polo knock-off of the original, nonhooded Patagonia Dragonfly. The Dragonfly started the lightweight shell craze, but it was $135 expensive, which is pretty expensive for a garment that almost isn't there. The Dragonfly weighed only 3 ounces. That's less than the weight of one stick of butter.

The Polo weighs just about the same, has a hood and was picked up for a fraction of the cost of a Dragonfly. The thin, ripstop, almost transparent material of which it is made never looked to have a long life, but this pullover has survived for years now.

But durability isn't why everyone should own a shell like this: Portability is.

These shells stuff down smaller than the size of an orange, and weigh significantly less. You can stick them in the pocket of a bike jersey or a cross-country ski vest and never know they are there until you need them.

And who knows when you might need them.

Climb above tree line anywhere in Alaska in almost any season, and it is possible to experience weather that goes from friendly to ferocious in hours if not minutes. Given the wind's ability to suck the warmth of life out of an unprotected human body, a shell is always wise.

The Dragonfly and the Polo are no longer available, except maybe on eBay. But MontBell makes a pretty nice looking 2.4-ounce alternative the company calls the U.L. Wind Jacket. I'd be guessing U.L. stands for ultralight. AMH, at the store in Spenard or www.alaskamountaineering.com, has the jacket for $84.

Two-point-four ounces, by the way, isn't much more than the weight of the laces in your running shoes.

• Ultralight wind pants. As long as you've got wind gear, you don't need much insulation beneath to stay warm, particularly on your legs. If you're skiing in the Alaska Range at 20 degrees below zero with only polypropylene tights under wind pants, it can become necessary to peel the wind layer to keep from overheating and sweating.

The pants I carry most are an old pair of Montane Featherlites from Europe that have proven surprisingly durable, given the fabric weighs only a few ounces. I don't know if the same will prove true of the MontBell U.L. Wind Pants ($69 at AMH), but their 3-ounce weight is hard to beat.

Again, weight and compactability make these garments easy to take anywhere. You don't need a pack to carry them.

You can stuff them in your pockets when snowshoeing or roll them into a belt and tie that around your waist when mountain running.

It might be nice if someone would buy Daily News hockey blogger and runner Doyle Woody a set for Christmas so he'd stop borrowing mine every year for the running of the Crow Pass Crossing.

Wind gear is required for that race. Woody's not the fastest guy in the competition, but he clearly understands that the more you carry, the slower you go; thus light is right.

On the other hand, durability is a lot more important in brush-busting pants than in jackets. If you are a serious gear thrasher -- or shopping for a gift for someone who is -- Red Ledge Thunderlight pants ($30 at Sportsman's Warehouse) are a durable and cheap alternative, although they weigh almost three times as much and are nowhere near as scrunchable. Still, at 8 ounces, their weight is less than half that of your average loaf of bread.

• Gloves. Even in the summer in Alaska, your fingers can go cold and useless in the wind. Thin, polypropylene gloves are warm even when wet, and they're relatively cheap so you won't get too upset if you melt them in the fire. Get or give a half-dozen pairs in the same color. Then you can mix and match as the gloves quickly wear out and head for the garbage.

I don't know what it is about gloves. Maybe I spend too much time sticking my fingers in other people's business, but even costly gloves wear out fast for me. Still, I wouldn't go hardly anywhere -- especially this time of year -- without a pair. If you're active, you don't need much more than a thin "liner'' glove to keep the hands warm at temperatures from freezing down to zero. Below that, something more substantial is in order .

And if you're inactive, well, that's another matter. If you're shopping for an ice fisherman, forget gloves and get them mitts -- big, thick mitts. I've got a pair for snowmachining. They are, unfortunately, on the list of gear I seldom carry; they're too warm.

• Lastly, a hat or headband. I've never bought into that old adage that you lose 90 percent of your body heat through your head, or 75 percent, or whatever the number is somebody made up way back when. And the latest research indicates you lose about as much heat through your head as you would through any other exposed body part of similar surface area. But whatever the case, when the temperature drops you do lose significant heat out the top.

A hat stops that. I'd recommend one, but I don't even know from where my favorite of the moment came.

It's a pretty standard synthetic fleece hat with a Fairbanks, Alaska, logo on the front. It doesn't say if it was made there or offshore, as so many of these things are nowadays, but it does appear someone from the Interior must have been involved in the hat's design.

Why is that? Because the hat is deep enough that the rim comes all the way down over the lobes of the ears. If you're living life at 40 or 50 degrees below zero, that's important. Otherwise, it's way too easy to frost-nip an ear lobe.

And the remnant of an ear -- like that toe in the famous "Sour Toe Cocktail" of Dawson, Yukon Territory, Canada -- is not something you want on the list of things you carry.

Find Craig Medred online at adn.com/contact/cmedred or call 257-4588.