Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board re: using lighters / matches at elevation

Has anyone ever had difficulty using matches or ' bic ' style lighters at elevation on Whitney... say above 8500 ft? Is there a ' better ' way to fire up a whisperlite intl at those elevation levels?

This will be my first trip to whitney, and using my stove at such elevations. We were in Yosemite - Glen Aulin last year without issues, but Whitney is very different in terms of elevation.

Any feedback is helpful.

My experience (through others' efforts) is that lighters can be very unreliable at high altitudes. I always use those waterproof matches from REI--they always light first time, and almost nothing will put them out until they've burn to where the matchhead-type material ends about halfway down the stick.

The cheap ol' Coghlin's waterproof matches worked just fine at Trail Camp at 20 degrees and 40+ mph gusts earlier this week (as did my funky little Coke can alcohol stove).

I find Bic lighters work fine at high elevations as long as they are warm.

I've used cheap 99 cent Bic lighters and found them to be the most reliable...even moreso than matches. If you are looking to light a gas stove..really all you are interested in is the spark anyway...so even if the Bic doesn't "light"..the spark will still ignite the stove.

There are two things (that come to mind) that I've spent good money on that I regret buying. A super-duper Brunton lighter which seems to rarely work at altitude. And electronic compasses..they are useless if you forget to "calibrate them"...give me a good old fashion non-battery one anyday.

BeachAV8R

I bought one of those fancy windproof EXGEAR lighters and it didn't work at all at 10,000 ft.
Good thing I also brought matches!

I find bic lighters and matches to be the best combo. Most of those fancy lighters, waterproof ones and what not are terrible at altitude. We get tons of them returned to REI all the time, because they don't function well above 8000ft.
Eric

i have gotten into a habit of firing a a celebritory bottle rocket at the tops of the peaks i summit - and my bic never seems to let me down - 10k, 12k, 14k - as long as the winds are not howling never been a problem.