Constructing a Bold and Dramatic Outdoor Fire Pit

There are times when extreme sports go far beyond the usual snowboarding, bouldering, white water rafting, mountain biking or cliff diving. Participating in extreme sports may mean that you have to don some hiking boots and go to the forest. The Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and Campfire Kids have done this for almost a century. Perhaps you have seen television shows about wild men and their desire to find fun by going to remote places.

The fact of the matter is that, when you end up in the woods at the end of a long day, you are not going to have a little cook stove to cook meat over. You won't have a space heater to help keep you warm. You are not going to have much of a light even if you did bring a flash light. Building a fire is one of the essential outdoor techniques to learn.

You should be able to build a fire anyplace outdoors where you rest for the day. Unless you are a Boy Scout you might be kind of clueless for what to do. Here are ways to get a fire going under difficult circumstances.

First, one needs to prepare the space for the fire appropriately. The fire will require a circle approximately four feet in diameter. You'll want to clear the area and circle the "firepit" with rocks. Where you cannot accomplish this, safety will require that you dig under a few inches or more.

The next step is getting the kindling to make fire-starting easier. You can use dry plants or leaves, lint, moss, wood shavings, or paper. Next, get some kindling together, like small pieces of wood or dried sticks. Finally, gather fuel which will keep the fire going steadily. Look for dry wood, animal dung, or coal.

Next, put a bit of tinder wood over a bundle of kindling sticks. In the case that you do not have matches, you can start a fire with a flint and steel, a magnifying glass, sticks, or a battery and steel wool. (This is probably a very exaggerated case.) Once you get the fire going, you can add fuel and firewood to keep the fire going steady. There are several patters for stacking wood for optimal burning.

Building and maintaining a fire can be challenging, so practice is always suggested before you might possibly find yourself in an extreme situation.