No, you don't need extreme weather to get hypothermia, I've heard for years that most people succumb between 30 and 50 degrees Farenheit. And at those temperatures it takes so little to prevent hypothermia, its ludicrous not to carry it. If they weren't carrying enough for an arctic expedition and temperatures drop to zero or below I can understand, but if all it would have taken was a sweater, or a rain jacket...it just makes it pathetic. But I'm preaching to the choir here.