Ideas please - survival kit XMAS pressies

[kiwigeo]

If your boys are considering any serious bushwalking then insist that they carry an EPIRB with them. These devices save lives and also the huge cost of an extensive search and rescue operation.

[ian]

My 2 cents worth

steel wool – better than a tampon for catching a spark to start a fire
stainless steel mirror with a hole in the centre – when signalling you look through the hole to make sure you're reflecting the sun in the right direction
compass – my preference are the oil dampened plastic ones that allow you to set the magnetic declination
water proof / wind proof matches – also known as flares, though they take some skill to strike
course in navigation and map reading skills – if you know where you are, you're not lost, but how do you work out where you are?
the Australian Geographic (or kathmandu) catalogue used to have a varient of the wood chip stove on this site though I think the solar stove is very geeky