Given that the guy who wrote the original list that started this whole thread didn't specify what sort of weather or terrain he hiked in, I took his list with a huge radicalised grain of salt...

If he tried hiking in the mountains I see out my window, in perfect weather he'd survive, until the weather changed which it is prone to do. When that happened, he'd be crying for help or dying of exposure.

The fact that he's teaching others that his ideas are valid without a ton of "if's, ands and but's" is idiotic if not criminal. A professor of backpacking? Give me a f&#@*+n break.

I'll give him this, his list was very educational, I now know what sort of gear that some of his followers will be asking to "borrow" should I ever run across any of them.