"When i crawl to shore in a forty mile an hour wind with ice crystals freezing to my eyelashes, every muscle in my body cunvulsing like spasms,"
I'm guessing I have..
a.)just fallen off the dock while getting on or off the water so I'll just get in the car and crank up the heat
or
b.)I have fallen overboard from a cruise ship so I am probably drunk and wont worry too much any way.
If I was out kayaking I was dressed for the conditions and imersion and so my clothing should have me in better shape.
I have swum in kayak clothing (wet suit and dry suit, more than once and for much more than 4 minutes, much more) in 40 deg water, the wind probably wasnt 40 but it was over 30 and there was a good swell running. In the UK we do something similar to this and call it coasteering and we do it for fun 12 months of the year.
However we did get cold occasionally and learnt to deal with it effectivly so.......
"When i crawl to shore in a forty mile an hour wind with ice crystals freezing to my eyelashes, every muscle in my body cunvulsing like spasms,"
I'm going to be getting shelter and clothing sorted out and not dink about with a fire at all (and certainly not set my tent alight) group emergency shelters are ideal for this if there is a group. Even with a gallon of gas (add a gallon of diesel here as well, burns hotter for longer but will need the gas or something similar to get it going) it will be precious minutes before the fire is doing enough to get me warm. Also if every muscle in my body is convulsing in spasms I will not be able to get my hand to work any thing fiddly like a cigarette lighter, the 40mph wind has probable blown away the fire.
In short dress properly and shelter/extra clothing is usually the priority over fire.
Thought 2;
Despite the above rant I like lighting fires, where environmentally appropriate.
To give your self the best possible chance of getting a fire going in adverse conditions, with minimal risk of equipment failure; Get a good solid flint fire lighter I use these
No moving parts, robust, not affected by water, reliable. They are easy to find, are big enough to use with cold hands last a long time and can be stored in a bottle of water and still work (grease them as they can oxidise after a while). The magnesium is useless when you really need it but it makes a nice handle. All my camp stoves have one in the bag with them and with a little practice it is easier than a match or lighter and always more reliable, I also have several others placed strategicaly in my equipment.
Add to this some drier lint or cotton wool mixed with just enough vasaline or petroleum jelly to wet out all the fibres, a 35mm film canister of this is more than enough to get a fire going in pretty much all conditions, just remember to pull it apart a little to expose individual fibres and the spark from the flint will get it going.
The above along with some bits of cedar shingle (soaked in a little diesel/kerosene is even better), sealed in an old tin can (start the fire in the tin can if conditions are bad) and you are in business. Friend of mine went one better and made a candle in the bottom half inch of the can using old candle wax and I dont know what for a wick, 100%.
Eggs As in “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.”
If you are paddling in cold climes it would be prudent to carry an assortment of fire-starting materials. River paddlers probably have no need for 1-minute signal flares, but 5 or 10 minute road flares will start even wet tinder burning. Worried about the striking cap? You should also be carrying a secondary fire-starter and tinder. A third backup is also a good idea when the possibility of death by hypothermia is a high probability.
SPare clothing? Of course.
Heat packs? Of course.
Magnesium fire starter sticks? I am not convinced. If combined with steel wool or drier lint then probably OK, but have you ever timed how long it takes to create suitable tinder and set it afire with a mag stick? I’ll rely on waterproof matches and a backup lighter anyday.
Jim
PS: I know a group of men who are alive today because of road flares (following multiple swims at Owassee Rapid on PA’s Pine Creek on a snowy April day).
TRIOXANE A couple years ago, after riding in the back of Duggee’s jeep with theBob and finding a big bag of these things and asking "Does the Federal Government Know you have these?, I purchased 432 Trioxane bars that are sealed in foil from a surplus store on the east coast for about $65 with shipping, and split them with a couple of friends.
I swear, you could light a rock with one of these things. I use them to light my fireplace and when I get within about a half inch of this with a lighter, it just burst into flame and burns blue hot for about 10 minutes.
This would probably be about the most fail safe item to have for lighting fires in an emergency. The foil pack can be submreged and if you can get a spark near one, you have a fire.
I know that this does not answer the question about actually “Lighting” the fire, but I thought this info might help.
get some more… Uncle Sam is no longer manufacturing them, which means soon they will go commercial and get sold for 2 for 5 dollars…(Not kidding here).
If anyone is interested… Here is the place that i bought my Trioxane. They still have it in bulk. 360 bars for $54 + shipping. I think that is the same as I paid, now that I think about it.
I am with thebob and jboyd on the Trioxane tabs. In my rescue kit I keep a pin kit with all the requisite carabineers, pulleys and prussic cords, a pack of baby wipes, a space blanket, some TP, a new bic lighter, waterproof matches and a chunk of WalMart special fire starter log. It’s that wax impregnated sawdust kind of thing. The Trioxaine tabs work on most occasions but the log chunk burns a lot longer if things are really wet. I have had to use the fire starter stuff twice on one paddling trip to warm up the same guy. I don’t know if he would have died of hypothermia but he sure wasn’t having any fun.
Went paddling yesterday. It was 21 Degrees when I got up and had warmed up to 33 degrees when we hit the water. Had a ball.
I like trioxane and road flares...
Consider also...
1. bicycle inner tube squares/strips
2. "cookies" made from sliced up 'starter' fire place logs.
3. fire balls made from paper towels tightly wadded up and dipped in melted paraffin. (favorite)
not convinced on magnesium huh again i’d suggest pre-shaving the magnesium…its quite remarkable stuff and i agree if you need it you probably dont have the time or the dexterity to shave the pile --and the pile you’ll need is larger than you’d think. if the magnesium is already shaved you’ll have a powerful tool. Even given that I consider magnesium third tier compared to the marine flares…
another thought on magnesium…after shaving it you can combine it with powered Esbit or the trioxane fuel bars and put into your film canister or whatever…its a good combo
No, not really…I don’t like mag bars I help moderate an ultra-lite backpacking web site and this subject comes up all the time.
I’ve tried (and reviewed) mag bars, “fire steels”, and the like, while hiking the past 30 years. Although fun to use, when a person is really cold and wet, with numb hands, panicked, and a fire must be built for whatever reason, they need the easiest fire possible, with the least effort and steps to get it. One handed if necessary. Oddly enough, the lowly match does a pretty good job of instant fire. A robust and long burning starter can skip the step of making a ‘rats nest’ of tender. I’ve been cold and desperate and actually burned a whole roll of TP, a sheet at a time, in a freezing tent when the weather turned on me as a teenager, before help came. Gemme FIRE NOW!..I don’t want to shave magnesium, strike a fire-steel, search for proper tender, etc.
If anyone has any doubts about this, try this test…
Pick a cold, sloppy, windy day (wind is important here) , and stay outside until you are ready to come in. Get really uncomfortable. No gloves. Now, go make a fire with what you’ve been carrying as an emergency fire starter. No cheating…you can only use what you’d normally carry in your pack/kayak, and local wet wood, or heart wood you’ve split out.
This is a real eye opener!
Emergency fire making is NOT fun or easy, when you are caught off guard and need heat now, no matter how skilled at fire making we think we are.
