Man, I really suck at this survival stuff <img src="images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

Took a drive out to Banff National Park yesterday and drove out to one of the picnic sites by the lake. Figured I'd get some hands-on experience in lighting a fire, so I brought along my P-60 MFB, my new backpacking camp stove, my Volcano/Kelly Kettle, a couple of Birch logs, and an Ericsson sheath knife to split the wood. Oh, and some newspaper. What else? A metal biscuit tin, with holes punched around the outside, that I thought would make a kind of portable mini-firepit, a couple of dry cotton balls in a watertight compartment on my key chain, and (as it happened) a book of paper matches.

Weather was blowing snow - wind wasn’t gusting too much but the snow was more horizontal than vertical. There are no open fires permitted at picnic sites (and you need a $3.00 “fire permit” to have an open fire at the campsites) but I figured a Kelly Kettle didn’t count as “open fire”. Just to be safe, I chose a picnic table by the lake, away from the trees. With snow 4 inches thick blanketing the top of the table, and more coming down, I didn’t figure there was much of a fire hazard, but you never can tell.

I started off by using the isopropane/butane stove to melt some snow. Was able to light it no problem with the ferrocerium rod on the MFB, melted some snow to put in the Kelly Kettle. Then I scrunched up some newspaper, split some slivers off one of the birch logs (from toothpick size to maybe finger-sized) and dropped them down the “crater” of the Volcano.

Now for a flame. Well, I figured I’d try the cotton balls in my key-chain. The first attempt, the cotton ball just fizzled and turned black. Second attempt, same thing. Didn’t stay lit long enough for me to set fire to a thin twig. Okay, third time lucky? I put some newspaper in the biscuit tin, put the remaining cotton ball next to it, and struck a spark from the MFB. The edge of the newspaper did catch fire, but the wind quickly blew it out.

I tried making a “Napoleon hat” out of newspaper and scraping some magnesium shavings inside it, but that wasn’t as successful as I’d hoped, so I gave up on it. That’s when I found the book of matches in my pocket, so I figured I’d just take “the easy way out”.

Well, lemme tell you - those suckers don’t stay lit in a high wind. I thought I knew how to light a match in the wind - cup it in your hand to shelter it - but the only way I could get one to stay lit was to hold it right up close to my chest, and if I tried to move it anywhere - pooft! I went through half a book of matches and finally quit.

I did manage to light the Kelly eventually - by firing up the campstove and holding a stick of birch log in the flame until it caught fire. Even that wasn’t easy - the wind was so stiff that the stick blew out every time I took it away from the stove. Eventually, by shielding it with my hand, I was able to keep it going long enough to drop it down the mouth of the Volcano. Pretty soon, there was a roaring blaze inside, flames licking out the top - but the wood burned down to coals before the water even thought about boiling. I cut some more wood sticks and dropped them into the kettle, and pretty soon the fire was going full bore again; but again it died down. I cut some more sticks and dropped them in, but this time the fire was out for good.

Some useful lessons learned:

1. Practice, practice, practice. I’ve lit fires using the MFB and a sheet of newsprint in much colder conditions, but not nearly as windy. It’s much more important to be able to use one technique in many different weather conditions, than to be able to use a dozen techniques in one specific environment.

2. Shelter from the wind is really important. I might have had much more success if I’d moved the KK into the trees, for example - or even put it on the ground beside the picnic table, rather than on top.

3. Paradoxically, being warm and comfortable helps you think straight. For example, I was standing downwind of the picnic table when I tried lighting the stove. This meant that to light the match, I had to turn my back to the stove; then when the match was lit, I had to turn around into the wind. It never occurred to me to move the stove to the other end of the table, so that I could use my body to shelter it AND the match. As I sit here in front of my computer, this seems blindingly obvious; was I being stupid, or was the cold starting to get to me? (fwiw, I wasn’t hypothermic, or even close to it.)

4. You always need more firewood than you thought you would.

5. In a real survival situation, I would most certainly have used a propane stove to light a campfire. Use whatever you’ve got and don’t be embarrassed about it; your buddies would much rather poke fun at you in the mess than say nice things about you at your funeral. :-)

I’m going to head back out there this weekend for three days. (I get Friday off every second week.) I’m going to get a fire permit for all three days, hike out to a backcountry campsite, and (see rule no. 1 above) <img src="images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />