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Eighty-seven condition checks to run on your kit before it leaves the house, so failures happen in your living room instead of at camp.

• Pack and carry system (8 points)
• Footwear and socks (8 points)
• Shelter (10 points)
• Sleep system (8 points)
• Stove, cookware and food storage (10 points)
• Water treatment and hydration (8 points)
• Clothing and rain protection (8 points)
• Navigation and light
• First aid and repair
• Documents and final load

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The stove that will not light was fine the last time you used it. So was the filter, and so was the tent. What changed is the months in between, when a seam let go in a hot garage, a cartridge slowly emptied, a filter clogged with silt from one bad water source, and a stove seal hardened into something that no longer holds pressure. None of it announces itself, and the only cheap time to find out is at home, on a table, with a hardware store still open.

Lay everything out by category instead of digging through the pack, because failures cluster. Shelter problems are usually poles, zippers and seams. Sleep problems are usually valves, loft and slow leaks. Kitchen problems are usually fuel, seals and a pot lifter nobody can find. Then operate the things that operate: light the stove, inflate the pad and leave it twenty minutes, run the poles out and check every ferrule. A look catches far less than a function test.

Sort every finding into three piles: fix now, replace before this trip, and watch. Most land in the first or third, which is the point. A pass usually turns up a couple of small repairs, one item that has quietly reached the end of its life, and a lot of gear you can now trust without wondering. Run it before any real trip, and again at season end while the damage is fresh.

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