Nice, thanks for the follow-up. Sounds like a great time and glad you enjoyed it. Reflection is quite valuable, and as you are doing that, I figure I will share my lessons on the things you are chewing over.
On tent's, I'm still happy with my dyneema Cimarron, we rode out 55ish mph (forcast on Windy Pro says 60 mph) winds in it this week. It held well. Three of the stupid plastic line locks for the stake cords broke, but that is fixed by using a taughtline hitch to tie the line directly to the loop and I well be cutting all those things off from now on. We bent stakes, but none pulled out (we stacked rocks on top of the stakes).
I still cannot convince myself to take the weight of a Hilleberg. If I ever get around to crossing the Harding I will get a red label and double poles though as a week of 120 mph winds sounds like a bad time.
Rain gear is tricky. I have long just embraced being wet, but the Kuiu Chugach rain pants worked well. Granted it was more a driving mist than hard rain and I was not busting brush, so I still have my doubts. I personally will not carry rubber rain gear.
I love my wind jacket, in my opinion they are too light and too versatile not to carry.
I've taken to using plain leather work gloves from Thee Bears most of the time. For wet conditions I coppied
@B_Reynolds_AK and got some Showa 282_02 gloves.
Boots are pretty individual, in training (to include heavy mountain rucks) I have been using approach shoes and telling myself I will hunt in them; but so far for every longer trip I go back to the same La Sportiva mountaineering boots. I really appreciated them on my last hunt for the stiff sole and ability to edge on rocks or step on sharp points even with a heavy pack on. The approach shoes edge well until the pack starts getting north of 60 pounds, then the sole is not stiff enough to support it reliably. Try changing up socks and insoles to see it it helps with blisters too. With thick socks or two layers I have problems with the La Sportivas, but with a mid cushion wool sock they are great. Some of boots is how you personally move and approach terrain. I often go over or through things that my hunting partner will go around, sometimes around is probably smarter.
On food, I'm pretty sold on the approach advocated by
@V2Pnutrition and in his podcast and the Hunt Backcountry podcast. I spent years not following it, but after trying it once, the difference in performance over multiple days was marked.
On training, some of it is just time building a base, but muscular endurance work helps a lot. Running is great for building a base, but like many before me have found, when I'm at my best as a runner, I sucfer more under a pack.
Take all that with a grain of salt, I'm still learning and adapting and my opinions will probably change with time. There is more than one way to get it done.