I agree with the previous posters here. Get out and use that stuff, and you will find what works and doesn't work. Right now you have spent more on backpacking eqipment than my wife and I did to hike 350 miles in the Sierra....
So advice? Stop buying, start using. And you will find that the 40 pound pack up Yosemite Falls will become a 30 pound pack, or lighter. And you can then hike more than a few miles without feeling like you are paying for your sins.
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