Hobbes,
Again, I am agnostic on footwear part of this. However, I do see more UL people in trouble than those who take a traditional approach. They tend not to have sufficient gear, and the right gear; and clothing when things go bad. Trailrunners, shorts and a poncho in wind driven rain don't work all that swell.
It was rather interesting to watch the UL JMT hikers camping near us on this morning at 11,500 feet below Forester Pass this is July 20. Forecast was "sunny and dry all weekend."
4 hours of rain and hail was the opener to this sunny and dry weekend. So much came down, I had to use the bear can lid to shovel it off the tent. Super windy that even our fully guy'd out tent felt somewhat challenged. We talked to a couple of UL hikers the day before on Kearsarge - they had abandoned the JMT in Mammoth because they had "caught some weather" and were back in for some smaller segment in the south because the forecast got better...
Not sure how they fared this stormy morning that followed, but it was again "some weather" for sure.
