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Hexamine fuel tabs (by Esbit or Coglan's available from Amazon. You can get the small ones (.02) oz. Squeeze a little Purell hand sanitizer on them and hit them with a striker on a magnesium rod and they light first time, every time and burn hot. The larger tabs will burn for 9 minutes (as another poster above noted). Hexamine has a shelf life of about forever. Put the Purell in a 1 oz. squeeze bottle and it will have a shelf life of damn near forever too and the 1 oz bottle will accelerate the lighting of dozens of Hexamine tabs.

Road flares are by far the best fail proof that I"ve seen. If they made em in 5-10 minute models, or what I'm thinking of as about half the normal size, and you could carry 2-3.. you should easily start a fire no matter how tough life got.

The foil blankets....nope... we do carry the tarp types though... but we always carry a 30 degree bag and bivy just in case anyway. And have been moving away from the tarp type blankets to a silnylon 8x8 tarp for rain showers and glassing cover etc.. double duty as a wind block and so on. But then I'm anal, and we have a pocket rocket and some instant tea/oatmeal most of the time too....

I also carry a ZIPPO. By putting a "ranger" band around the body opening, it makes it water tight and the fuel will last a long, long time. Here is a post I made in another thread aboout the same subject with a picture of my ZIPPO with the rubber band around the opening.

I've found over the years the ZIPPO is very easy to fire up when my hands are so cold I can barely move my fingers. Beats hell out of any Bic I ever saw.

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/8780980/Searchpage/1/Main/616131/Words/Zippo/Search/true/Re:_Zippo_lighters#Post8780980

Works for me.

L.W.

Orion makes both 5 and 10 minute flares. I don't know where to buy them in packS of less than 144, though. ORION 5 MIN FLARES

While searching for them, I found out that flares in large quantities are getting harder to find because they use them to make meth.

Walmart carries 3 min signal flares. I don't know how they compare to road flares for fire starting. They're pricey, though, at $28 per 4-pack
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Orion-Locate-4-Handheld/16326929

Gander Mtn has a 2-pack for $10. http://www.gandermountain.com/modperl/product/details.cgi?i=851243

are signal flares aerial?

Be carefull of Bic lighters in the cold at high elevation. My experience is that they fail every time.

Bics are filled with butane, aren't they? Butane doesn't do well at high altitudes or in the cold. It needs to change to a gas to burn in a lighter or stove and it's boiling point is slightly below the freezing point of water, about 30F. In the cold it's hard to get it to change to a gas.

I wish I knew that about Bic lighters when I lived in Colorado and climbed fourteeners regularly, some in the winter in well below the freezing point of water (and skin, and lots of other things). All kidding aside, they work fine at high altitude in the cold, you just have to keep them in an inside pocket. We used to put half a bottle of warm water in one boot, and the stove fuel and lighters in the other boot, then put the boots in a sleeping bag stuff sack, then put the works in the bottom of the sleeping bag for the night. I still buy long sleeping bags to this day.

Oh, and back to the original topic - we used to walk the train tracks near crossings and pick up the dud and half burnt railroad flares. Cut them off in 2" pieces and dunk in hot paraffin a couple times. Had to take a knife and use the point to loosen up the wax and powder on one end before lighting, but worked well and gave about 5 minutes burn time. Could probably do the same with store bought road flares.

In that case, they're not in the cold. Leave them in a cold pack, though, and it's another story. Then you need a Zippo.
As far as altitude goes, those butane bbq strikers usually fail somewhere around 5 to 6000'. The ones in our camper never work in the mtns and I've tried about every brand.

I know you know the first rule of fire starters - have two and keep them on you at all times, so pulling one out of a pocket is more realistic than fishing around in a backpack for a cold one isn't it?

Your luck with butane lighters sucks. I've used the same butane bbq striker in our popup for years, usually in 7000 to 8000 feet range, down to 15 degrees at night, and never not had hot coffee first thing in the morning. I had to get a new one this year, and was feeling adventurous, so I bought a different brand. Damn if it didn't work too. You know there's a little sparky thingy on butane lighters that you have to work with your thumb or finger, right?

This is why I use piezoelectric lighters whenever I can get them.

Trioxane bars.

I carry 2 or 3, and that would enable me to start fires for a couple weeks. All for the grand total of less than one dollar. And they weigh next to nothing.

Bic and cotton balls with Vaseline or wax in a pill bottle.