>>674674>Don't build the campfire directly on the snow>Try to find dead standing woodYup.
Starting fires innawoods in the winter is a lot harder than it is in the summer, even if you find dry(ish) wood or good tinder.
Built one a few weeks ago, wood was deceptively wet. Couple guys tried with carbide rocks and firesteel, got it to flame for 20-30 seconds but that wasn't long enough to dry out the tinder we had, let alone torch it off.
Another guy had some vaseline-soaked cotton balls, same result.
I got tired of not having a fire, and cracked off a road flare. Those burn fuck-hot for 15 minutes, and they're real easy to light (Sort of a big matchstick glob on top of the flare, with a striker on the cap).
About 5 minutes of that burning on the tinder pile was enough to get going strong, tinder plus the remainder of the flare got the rest of the fire going. >Pic extremely related
Being on a snowmobile or dirt bike means I have gasoline too - I've doused wood in gasoline from a jerry can to get things going before. Being lazy and gathering a bunch of big-ish branches (not really scavenging for decent tinder) took about 1/2-gallon of fuel before it was able to sustain itself and dry out additional wood put on it.
