Well said Connie. I used to help volunteer with SAR here in Colorado and we were frequently retrieving a wide array of fools with the nicest, most expensive of equipment, equipment most of us on the squad could never afford.
Knowledge is knowing that an avocado is a fruit; wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad.
Of course, the best sort of knowledge (and perhaps wisdom) comes only with experience and that takes a willingness to learn and therefore make some mistakes en route. What we see up here are those who skip the steps and go straight to the big, life-threatening errors. Heck, a month or so ago we had a guy trying to cross Trail Ridge Road (12,000+ feet) on foot with little more than summer street clothes and a plastic bag of groceries (
here). Luckily, most of us aren't that dumb (or suicidal).
The ten "essentials" I value are:
1) Wisdom (though I'm not quite there myself)
2) Knowledge of thyself (strengths, weaknesses, limits)
3) Knowledge of the goal and all that it takes
4) Knowledge of Ma Nature (terrain, weather, potential weather, etc)
5) Fitness (structural, aerobic, metabolic)
6) Ego (confidence in your ABILITIES, not your capacities**)
7) Lack of ego (i.e., a willingness to "fail" by retreating when needed, etc)
8) Water access and food supplies (regardless of metabolic fitness)
9) Knowledge of equipment (and Nature's equipment)
10) Equipment (clothing, fire starter, shelter, map, compass, H2O filter, etc)
**Ability is measurable; capacity is a condition
I personally don't look at thru-hiking or hiking as risky propositions, though there's obviously some risk involved (just as there is in life, which always ends up the same regardless). What we see up here is an inverse relationship: that the risk
decreases as the wisdom and knowledge and fitness increase. Historically we've seen that equipment is not a panacea like its manufacturers want you to believe.