Fire making skills

[Traffic Jam]

I'm glad you brought this up! I was at Dolly Sods two weekends ago during the snow. I carried a 2.5# Duraflame log in to assist. We even found a campsite that had a neat stack of freshly cut logs. It had rained the night before. We absolutely could not get the logs to catch fire. The Duraflame burned for a long time under the logs. Made 'em char, glow, and you could see water boiling out...but they wouldn't catch.

So any tips for actually getting the big fire going before we head out for another winter trip? I'd hate to strap 20# of Duraflame logs to my pack, but will if I have to

Yeah...I can’t figure how in the heck these people get damp wood to burn, are they magic? I’ve tried every tip that’s been suggested (and more, except the esbit and relighting birthday candles, very cool idea). I’ve also been with other hikers with better skills who also couldn’t get the wood to burn. There’s gotta be something more basic that I’m missing in my fire building skills. Are people using more flammable accelerants than hand sanitizer, Fritos, or petroleum jelly?