Bob
Since you started the Colin Fletcher thread, you know that for many of us the trailwise pack came later. I'd rather carry a cruiser axe than a hatchet and I never like pork and beans, beans yes but pinto beans not baked.

Rectangular flannel lined sleeping bags were and are more comfortable than nylon mummy sacks, just a tad heavier but definitely roomier, and much more comfortable if you were gonna spend a whole summer using it. I wore out three of them and even used em in the winter - without a pad under it. Needing a nylon 800 down bag is for weight and style, not comfort, sort of like everybody needs an internal or frameless pack now instead of an external, mostly for looks and style. People need free standing tents now even though tube tents and hoop tents are roomier for the same weight. Iron skillets worked much better than titanium, so did aluminum boy scout cook sets. I remember I was really styling when I moved up from wood fires to a Sterno stove. Mind you my base pack weight never went over 18 pounds. We didn't need no stinking tent anyway, a ground cloth worked well and if it rained you flipped the edge over you.