Did any of the members in your group start to slip mentally? That's my favorite part of these scenarios. Hysteria, panic and clouded irrational decisions.
We had enough food with us to last about 4-5 days without problem. We rationed it to last for about 2 weeks, we didn't know how long we had to hang on so we decided to go with as little food as possible from early on. As far as water went, we melted snow. We had supplies to make and keep up fires.
I feel like I'm talking to myself. Did you not see the link I posted? Apparently not, since you posted it again. I guess you didn't see the part about starting a fire with a dead lighter either...sigh. Maybe you'll watch a video since you don't want to read.
http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-start-a-fire-from-a-dead-lighter-2
by SystematicBullshit Claim.
"Very fine steel wool can also be used as tinder in emergency situations, as it burns even when wet and can be ignited by fire, a spark, or by connecting a battery to produce joule heating."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steel_wool
Even a lighter without fluid can still produce sparks.
Go ahead, try it. Find a video of someone sparking up steel wool with something other than a battery.
You'd be better off sparking tissue paper. Which is no option in this scenario. Newspaper is too thick.
The steel wool will NOT ignite off a zippo with no fluid. Not even a dedicated barbecue sparker.
Try it yourself.
I don't have any steel wool on hand other than soap scrub pads which are obviously no good, however, there is NO WAY, only my opinion.
Didn't any of you guys ever spend your teen years starting fire pits and drinking beer? There is no way you're going to get a sparker to start a fire on steel wool.
Maybe a sparkler, but those are fireworks.
Okay, maybe you are right? But there is no mention of using a small crappy lighter. They are using dedicated ferrocerium rods and firesteels.
http://www.practicalsurvivor.com/firesteelwool
Battery would work better, if it were a high enough voltage.
And it would work with thicker guage steel wool. You wouldn't be entirely dependent on whether or not you had salavaged, extra ultra fine grade, which most certainly would be needed for a shitty flint lighter situation which probably wouldn't even work, and most certainly not while wet.