Mark,

Welcome to the fire, excellent first post. It sounds like you/your friends are the sort of ultralighters that we can admire.

Our main problem with the Backpacker magazine article is that we fear it'll cause people without your level of experience to shed gear without replacing it with knowledge. That's a situation which could lead to a lot of misery.

You are definately right about a majority of people in need of rescue are either the totally un-equipped or standard-gear hikers. I have to wonder though if the standard-gear hikers need more rescues because there are more of them?

I think it all boils down to, "Don't be stupid in the woods."

Wow, did I really just write that?

-Blast