Buying gear is apparantly mine; I was pretty sure last year that all the gear I had already would be fine for my next sizeable trip, but now I find myself incrementally replacing tent, down jacket, and now sleeping bag, plus a new GPS ...

No one of these things do I absolutely *have* to have, but they all represent improvements (I think) over what I have been using, and on a per-mile and a per-day-of-hiking basis they amortize pretty well, and each of the new items will give me (yet) more flexibility in future years to tune gear to the specific trip.

But still.