Just a FYI for those in the backcountry. I consider myself an avid backcountry rider and until last Monday I thought I was prepared for just about anything. I have just about anything you need to spend the night, start a fire, re-build a sled, fix a gourmet meal, etc... but found out that my first aid kit was really lacking. It was a blue bird day with fresh snow and we were one of the first ones in to Gallagher, saw the Alpine Assassins group in there, came across one of them stuck and got to give em a ski pull to get out, pretty cool, those guys shred, any way while out to the west I was sidehillin from the big cornice over to the peak and struck a rock under thin cover and slid out and got bucked into the mountain striking a rock with my knee. I have Klim freeride pant with the knee pads and figured that would provide most the protection I would need. After watching my sled tumble and stick itself, and during getting it upright I noticed a bunch of blood in the snow, well long story short the rock had sliced through my pants, my knee pads, and my knee cap to the internal joint, I was fileted open like a salmon. I got to the bottom of the hill and my partners took over, I realized that my kit would do no good here cause no one had a cut finger or needed a knuckle splint. Luckily for me one in my group had a large maxi pad and veterinarian horse wrap to place over my knee and hold my knee cap in place for the ride out, wasn't his first time in the mtns and thank goodness, he'd dealt with this type of major trauma before. Otherwise it would've been a t-shirt and duct tape. I was still not looking forward to getting out of there, 20 or so miles to the truck through Gallagher and the beat up whooped trail, we passed the Alpine Assassins group at sitting at Gallagher Lake and I wanted to stop and say hi but was more worried about bleeding to death, sorry guys. Any way I went into surgery that afternoon and was released the following afternoon. Moral of the story here guys is I thought I was prepared for most emergencies, but found out that really big bad things can happen and I need to step up the first aid kit a little, hope this might have some of you re-thinking yours to be better prepared for something stupid to happen that you wouldn't think possible, also gonna invest in some real knee pads/brace cause the ones in the cool pants just aren't gonna cut it, no punn intended. All turned out well but because of someone else being prepared, when I got to the ER my blood pressure was about 84/42 and I was not feeling to hot, blood leaves a body in a hurry and you need that stuff, took two hrs to get to the hospital, don't know how it would've turned out if we had to stay there longer. Happy sledding there guys, be safe, be prepared!!! A few pics to show the day, my good buddy CascadeAddictionPro1 stealing the show