I'll agree with you to a large extent Jim, but the gear talk is inevitable because it's what people spend money on. Notwithstaning that there have been a few real gems here for newbs, and they do come around from time to time. How to melt snow was good. Daisy's "how to pack a pack" was wonderful.

Makes me wonder if we shouldn't have a "Backcountry Techniques - The How To not the What With" topic section to just sticky up a bunch of these good ones and encourage further such discussion.