Money to Burn...

Saturday, Yong Chun Kim was leading a group of folks on a little snow-shoeing adventure on Mount Rainer, when he got himself in a litle trouble.  He took a spill down a slope, and while he was still in voice contact with the rest of his group, he told them he was fine, and he would meet them back at the lodge, after taking the scenic route back.

Except, it gets awfully dark, awfully fast this time of year, and after a wrong turn or two, Mr. Kim was pretty lost, and never made it back to the lodge that night.

He seems to have kept his head, and instead of walking himself into disaster, he holed up for the night in the relative shelter under a large pine tree.  The article says he had a firestarter with him, and tried burning leaves, but had to resort to burning his socks, and then some of the cash he had in his wallet to keep warm.

Rescued snowshoer burned money to stay warm

I'm not sure what kind of dire straights I would have to be in to burn my socks...even if it was a spare pair.  I would burn the cash before I would strand myself with soggy feet in the snow.  It's just proof that having a lighter, or some matches isn't enough.  When I am out and about, in addition to having at least two ways to produce a flame, I have a few ways to keep the flame going a while. 

While there are many fancy commercial products(compressed saw dust in resin, fire gel, and some folks like the Esbit Stove Pellets), I prefer cheaper homemade options:  I smear some cottenballs in vaseline or melted candle-wax, then stuff them into used toilet paper rolls(the empty cardboard roll, not used toilet paper).  My wife has an idea for using the empty lids of beer bottles to make mini-candles, but heck, even a few tea-lights in a zip-lock bag might keep you from having to burn a Fiver or two...

Or your socks...