Another recommendation here for those REI stormproof matches. They're almost impossible to blow out, and they burn and burn. They don't eliminate the need for fire starter if everything is soggy, but you will probably need less of it. I've found recently that regular kitchen matches (which used to work just fine in the outdoors as long as kept dry and shielded from wind) are becoming of poorer and poorer quality and becoming harder and harder to light. When starting my wood stove at home, it seems that almost half the time the head pops off and most of the rest of the time the kitchen matches don't light at all!

With my mini-Bics, I take a pair of needlenose pliers and remove that metal strip over the top, which makes the lighter more effective. It's also important to warm up that lighter in cold weather, since butane doesn't vaporize below freezing. However, I use it only for lighting my stove. (Note that piezo lighters on stoves tend to give out after a couple years of use.) I haven't had much success using a lighter to start a fire when conditions are poor. That's why I carry some of those REI matches in my
"Ten" Essentials kit. My backup to my lighter for lighting my stove is a book of paper matches (they still light fine, unlike the "kitchen" matches) in a small plastic bag. They don't burn long enough for lighting wood, though.

One reason for the knife in the "Ten" Essentials (aside from cutting tape or moleskin for your blisters) is so you can take a small stick and cut "frizz sticks" (thin shavings cut off the stick but still attached to it). Often the wood inside a stick will be dry when all the tiny twigs around are soaked. Be sure, also, to gather lots and lots of tiny twigs and lots of small sticks. You need to have a lot of the tiny twigs (a lot more than you think you do, maybe twice as much) ready for your fire starter or other tinder to dry out, and then you need to feed in little sticks (again, lots more than you think you do) well ahead of need so the burning twigs will dry them out. It's really important to have all this gathered in advance so you're not running around looking for more wood when you should be nursing the fire!

Personally, I rely on my rain gear and on keeping my insulation layers dry (in my pack or on me, which includes avoiding sweating into them) so I don't need to build a fire. I also will turn back rather than trying dicey stream fords in cold weather. I guess I read that Jack London story too many times!

Having used a stove for backpacking for many years, I really came to grief trying to show off my "one match fire" skills to my granddaughter a few years back. Moral: keep practicing those skills! If you don't need them for survival you do need them to impress your descendants!