Bic Mini-Bic lighter

The Bic Mini-Bic is the default lighter in most ultralight kitchen kits, and for good reason: at 11 g it is about as light as reliable fire-starting gets. Its flint-wheel ignition needs no batteries or electronics, works after getting wet once it dries out, and requires no maintenance in the field. BIC rates the built-in butane reservoir for more than 2,000 ignitions, which comfortably covers a multi-week thru-hike with two stove lights a day. That combination of low weight and high ignition count is why it shows up so consistently on gear lists for backpacking, bikepacking, and fastpacking alike. The trade-off is cold-weather performance: like any flint lighter, the Mini-Bic gets harder to strike in freezing temperatures, so hikers heading into genuinely cold conditions typically carry matches or a ferro rod as backup rather than relying on it alone. For three-season use, though, it remains one of the simplest, cheapest ways to shave weight off a cook system.