Most people don’t realize how fast cold can kill. Hypothermia claims well over a thousand lives a year in the U.S. alone, often in ordinary backcountry trips where someone gets wet, tired, disoriented, and under-dressed. Once your core temperature drops, you lose judgment, coordination, and fine motor control—the exact things you need to start a fire. The survival literature is blunt: the ability to build a fire under adverse conditions is an essential skill because that warmth, light, morale, and signal “may mean the difference between life and death,” and the need usually doesn’t show up until the weather has turned ugly, you’ve gone into the river, or you’re facing an unplanned night out. In other words, you may be making your first serious fire of the trip when you’re cold, wet, scared, and possibly injured—so your tools have to work then, not just on a sunny practice day.¹²³

That’s why every Jackpack kit—starting with the Scout—carries a dedicated fire system built around tools that still function with numb hands, in wind, rain, and snow, and even when you can only use one arm. We chose the UST BlastMatch as the primary igniter because it’s a one-handed ferro rod that throws a dense shower of hot sparks, works when wet, and is good for thousands of strikes—true “non-consumable” ignition you can bet your life on. We pair it with a Coghlan’s waterproof match container loaded with petroleum-jelly cotton balls: tinder that is windproof, waterproof, easy to light from a spark, and burns for many minutes—long enough to dry and catch small, damp twigs.³⁴

Ordinary “waterproof” and “windproof” matches, by contrast, are built for lighting cigarettes and candles, not for survival; they can be hard to ignite when cold, quickly foul or wear out their own striking surfaces, and even snap at the head when pressure is applied. That’s why we treat matches as expendable backup, not the core plan.³

At Jackpack Gear we keep fire-building simple on purpose: first, pick a flat spot with as much shelter from wind, rain, and snow as you can find. Before you strike a spark, gather dry fuel in stages—fine tinder and dry bramble, then small twigs, then thicker sticks—so everything is within reach. Lay a small dry base, fluff open a petroleum-jelly cotton ball, and ignite it with the BlastMatch; that long, hot burn gives your fine twigs time to catch. Once they’re going, feed in the next size up, then gradually add denser wood, building the fire up instead of smothering it.³⁴

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