My buddies and I were hiking up Mt. Liberty in the White Mountains September 1973(?) from my notes: "Good weather during the ascent, fog at the top. Heavy rain the next day - trails were like ditches. People were hiking up the trail carrying grocery bags full of Coke and other canned foods, while packing huge rectangular sleeping bags on their backs. They suffered the next day!"

Folks had their arms full of paper grocery bags full of canned food, loaves of bread (Sunbeam), packages of burger, etc. while on their backs were the traditional 'Boy Scout' pack stuffed with clothes, 2 burner Coleman stoves, etc. with you're basic cotton rectangular sleeping bag tied to the top or bottom. There was no kind of shelter visible but they could have had a roll of Visqueen stuffed in the bottom of one of those packs for all I know... The weather turned nasty that night. I always wondered what became of those folks...

On the other hand, one of our party on the way up the mountain to claim our plywood tent pad perched on the side of the extremely bouldery mountainside, apparently did not sweat a drop. I was sweating like crazy and he never seemed to break a sweat... 'Course he was sicker than a dog. It was a miracle he made it to the campsite near the top of the mountain.

Dave