Always have 3 methods on me in any wilderness situation (matches, flint n steel, lighter). My ferro rod is huge being about the size of a cigar.
Locally, we had a group of 3 elderly fishermen just recently who thought they would do a downstream angling run of about 5 miles as a day trip. Might be 5 miles as the crow flies, but actual stream distance is about 15 to 17 miles. It takes a full day to traverse if one simply hikes from dawn to dusk. They were prepping for their second night out when found with no one in the group capable of starting a fire.
With tons of wood about and lots of fishing line, one would think they could have done a bow drill.
According to my neighbor who found them, they were a pretty grouchy bunch.
Several years back 4 chukar hunters got lost in a heavy and persistent fog with no means of starting a fire. We found their campsite where they had dismembered shot shells and attempted to ignite things by firing the primers into a pile of powder. Didn't work and they spent an extremely cold night in a group hug. They were found by a kid out looking for coyotes late on the second day.
Whatever one carries, it should be functional in even the most dire situations. A friend and his wife got hit with a serious summer time temp drop with wind and snow at elevation. Their hands became essentially useless. They made it to their rig and had to literally rip his pants pocket off to extract his keys. With insufficient grip, they had to put a twig through the key ring to torque the key over and unlock the door.
One's not often faced with such dire conditions, but I've had a few instances where my hands were damned near nonfunctional. The old scout motto most certainly applies.
We occasionally watch some of the survival shows, and it's amazing that many of the peacock strutting Rambo's have serious issues getting a fire started.
Last edited by 1minute; 09/25/22.
