Anyone have any thoughts on lighters that work reliably at Altitude? Accepting lower pressures, reduced O2 etc, and hence smaller flame required to give good air : fuel mix, but there must be things that work reasonably. We are off to Langtang (Nepal) in a few weeks, and useful to take lighter to eliminate the nasty pink chinese loo roll syndrome (this is not a political comment!)
The normal chuck away ones work fine in the high Andes so there shouldn't be any prob in Nepal. Call me daft but I've never worked out how people manage to burn bog roll with a lighter. The few times I've tried it I ended up with a mess of half burned paper, burnt fingers and a lot of cursing. These days I use baby wipes and carry them out in a small butty bag on the outside of my pack. Works fine for me
this is not a joke : I stopped using bog roll for the 8 months or so that I was in India & Nepal. The first time I was in Nepal, I used it and joined the Pink loo roll brigade (burning it is far easier when there's a ready supply of lighter fluid!). But it was tricky, messy, smelly and ultimately polluting. The next time I went out, I thought I'd try native instead. The locals don't need paper, and after a short while the techique & procedures for staying clean and healthy are learnt. You just stop eating with your left hand
Thanks for solutions, just supports what I thought really. Though did expect someonre to come back with some trendy costly flame thrower!
Previous experience says matches always work, but will take a couple of lighters to try. What I have found in UK is that the really cheap and chearful ones (box load for a £, you know the shop!) are just not reliable.
I was going to add, try to get 'decent' disposables. In the Andes we used to pre-test then stick to the same brand. As far as using a fire steel-type thing goes, I think that might be fine with certain stoves, but I wouldn't want to be arsing around trying to light an XGK on a glacier at 5500 metres with one of those, though I'd be happy to be proved wrong.
they seem to be reliable enough according to this fella,although he also says that he cant light paraffin with one.The rest of his site is great by the way,after all there's nothing like living vicariously through hardcore alpinists eh?
Posh lighters don't seem to work at altitude (link). I carry three disposables, but two would be OK on a Nepalese trek because you'll be able to buy another en route if you need one. Take a small bottle of travellers' hand disinfectant gel.
