I am sure we all would agree that in an ideal world, you have skill, experience, and superb equipment, all ideal for the task at hand.
Take another area - firearms. I am an adequate shot, but rather rusty - my military and LE training are decades ago. Give me a fine target rife, capable of sub-MOA accuracy, and I will keep the shots on the paper, and probably shoot a decent group (for me). But hand that same rifle to one of the current riflemen here on the forum, and you will get a group you can cover with a dime, or maybe just one hole - the best possible result. Could I out shoot that same rifleman if that person had a mediocre firearm? That would be an interesting question. I suspect I could not.
Going back to off roading. They still talk about the Phoenix doctor who custom built a 4x4 specifically for Canyon de Chelly. He brought to the canyon and irretrievably stuck it within sight of the visitor center. It sank from view, and now rests deep within the sands of de Chelly, awaiting the attention of future archaeologists from the planet Mong.
Eperience counts.
LOL... Love your story about the Phoenix Dr! I can just imagine a Star Trek Next Generation hikermor sometime in the next millenium, doing his dissertation on the remarkable discovery he made in the Canyon....
One other story about the equipment vs skill equation. A long time ago, I worked for a few years out of Denver, doing oil exploration up in WY. We had an old guy who would "bird dog" our seismic crews (follow them around and make sure they were working up to spec). He had a classic big Detroit street car that he would drive into the field, an Impala as I recall. The only modification was a steel plate protecting the oil pan, other than that it was just stock.
The seismic crews were working off road, out in the sagebrush country. Some of it was easy going, but there were some pretty rough spots, washes to cross, etc. He was able to drive that car into the most amazing places. Somewhere in my files I think I have a photo of him and that car, on the far side of a wash, just laughing. He was watching the crew trying to winch out one of the big 4WD trucks that had become thoroughly stuck when it tried to follow him across the wash. He went with the seis crews everywhere in that car, and rarely if ever got stuck. Most of what I know about off road driving I learned by riding around with him.
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