And now it’s time to make a fire. But don’t leave it too late. Out here, you should allow plenty of time to do this. The most important thing about making a fire, especially when you are cold and you are tired at the end of the day, is preparation. It’s no good spending a lot of effort to get a little of tinder going and then realize you’ve got no kindling to fuel that fire. So what I’ve got here is a really good base of quite damp wood. This is gonna support it and also let some air get to it. I’ve got a bank of snow around here. This is gonna act as a reflector to reflect heat back to me. I’ve got my tinder, some kindling and some bigger wood. And the first thing I need to do is try and get some of this tinder going. And the way I’m gonna do that, I’ve got, it was cool, just a strike and a flint. And I always carry this with me. Obviously not when I’m at home because that would just be weird. But whenever I’m outside, this is the one thing I always have hanging around my neck. That means, whatever the situation I should be able to get a fire going. Or so the theory goes. 

 

And this is a critical time. They always say if you invest the effort early on in a fire, that’s the time that really matters. Now, to make some drinking water. But what I can do now is a little trick, what they call Finnish marshmallows. And if I just get a bit of wood like this, then grab a bit of snow, jam that onto the end of a bit of a stick, stick it into this, get on that, stay on, and put this underneath it, and the heat of the fire will slowly melt that. It will drip into the cup. And when I’m relaxing, I should have a glass of water in the not-too-distant future. I can now boil some water for a cup of spruce tea.