I don't want this to sound like I'm the only dude who's ever almost died but having sorta recently broken through lake ice while backcountry skiing I learned that the cutesy fire starting methods won't work when you actually need a fire right now, and space blankets take forever to unroll when your flesh is freezing and are useless in the wind. I've switched to road flares and the SOL bivy sacks.
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....
