Honestly, I remember reading a forum post a while back about a guy who spent months rebuilding his entire carburetor from scratch, only to find out the fuel line was just pinched. It's wild how our brains jump to the worst case scenario first. Dust in the vents is such a common thing too, but nobody ever checks the simple stuff first. Ngl, I've done similar things with my own projects, thinking it's some deep mechanical issue when really it was just dirt or a loose wire. Tbh, it's almost a relief when it's something dumb like that.

My Wind Rivers trip kicked my ass too but honestly that kind of suffering is what made it memorable. I'd take a brutal off-trail route over a well-graded one any day if you're okay with not seeing a soul for days.

Caseym48 said 'free flight trap' and that's exactly it. But I'd gently push back on one thing - it's not always the fine print people miss. It's more like they understand the rules but convince themselves they'll be the exception. I've seen friends who know exactly how interest works still do the math wrong. They'll carry a $200 balance for a couple months thinking 'it's only a few dollars in interest' and completely forget that those points they earned were worth maybe $30 total. The real trap is thinking you're smarter than the bank's formulas when you're really just lining up for their game.

Oh man, @daniel857 you're speaking my language. I feel your pain, last week I accidentally bent a paperback so bad the cover nearly snapped clean off.

yeah "curtain tension" is a good point actually. my buddy from the local camera club had a similar issue with his old mamiya rb67 back in july at this outdoor market thing. it was like 90 degrees and sticky out. he cleaned the shutter blades three times and still got a couple of sticky shots. finally he just took the whole shutter assembly apart and tightened the curtain springs a tiny bit and bam no more grabbing. @derekward is right about old lubes too, the stuff they used in the 70s gets like tar in warm weather. i warned him about doing that spring adjustment too much though, easy to mess up the timing.