There's one more argument in favor of a good firesteel over a lighter. Sure, I'd prefer to carry both but if I took a big spill and landed on my gear, the lighter might be smashed but the 'steel won't be.
Maybe so. But a fall that would smash a Bic could also jam that steel deep into human flesh. Worth considering.
I'll take that chance. The larger the steel the more unlikely that you'd be capable of carrying it perpendicular to your body. When you fall you'll land on the length of it. Maybe you could come up with some weird scenario where the steel would end up the other way but I have a hard time seeing how. Especially if you carried it like it was a pen (eg clipped to a shirt pocket, back pocket like a wallet, etc).
Sometimes a disposable lighter can be broken by just by sitting on it.
I'll add that there are various ways of carrying Firesteel so that stabbing yourself would be practically impossible. An Altoids can would be one method, and you could carry tinder in there as well. Also, the inexpensive (but effective) Coghlan magnesium/flint bars would make stabbing highly unlikely.
If you have to start a fire out there snowboarding, then you probably went through a gnarly crash, off trail, in powder, to get to where you are. My most trusted fire starter is flint (e.g., Firesteel) with magnesium tinder. I believe this method is the most rugged and reliable. My next most trusted is a Peanut Lighter:
http://countycomm.com/sslight.htm.I would not trust a Bic lighter in the situation at issue. Again, the situation here is an unusual, gnarly crash off course.
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