Hiking equipment
According to Tom Brown, the basic plan for survival is in the order of shelter (including clothing), water, fire, and food. Cody Lundin writes about the "Rule of 3s"; this relates to human survival without basics: three minutes without air, three hours without shelter, three days without water, or three weeks without food.
Water
The existence of liquid water, and to a lesser extent its gaseous and solid forms, on Earth are vital to the existence of life on Earth as we know it. The Earth is located in the habitable zone of the solar system; if it were slightly closer to or farther from the Sun (about 5%, or about 8 million kilometers), the conditions which allow the three forms to be present simultaneously would be far less likely to exist.