A lot of these things are nice-to-haves instead of must-haves -- and no sport is less forgiving of nice-to-haves than backpacking -- but it's cool to see an edited list.

It's very unclear to me -- the non-backpacker -- what's nice to have and what's must-have.

So make sure you drop hints if you want a non-backpacker friend to buy you a gift that is essential.