I think this statement is wrong. And the whole notion of traditional. Traditionally people didn't travel out of anything else but pure necessity. This travelling in nature as a pasttime is a rather new thing which came with the novelty of leisure time (and money to consume stuff they actually didn't need to survive or improve the farm).
Travelling by horse has never been a viable option for most people, unless you were a hun. People have always been walking, while shelter and supplies has been carried by horse or other pack animals. In more meta-civilised times people walked to a large body of water and took a boat. And most often travelling using the large networks of hostels, taverns and whatnot that provided roof above the head and warm food for the weary traveller. It's not by chance that travelling literature spellbound large audiences since mr Gutenberg started his machine, people were just not travelling in any greater extent. Not in the way we think about travelling at least. The journey man system made people moving around but usually not with any need for camping equipment. If somebody were far from hostel or similar they would just sleep in a barn or whatnot.
But yes, furs have been used for insulation and domestic bedding for as long as man has been on this earth. And, natural insulation is not as weight efficient as modern materials. But you may have noted that most people here does not give flying eff about weight effectivness. Nor about any other effectivness. So it's time to face that no matter how much you preach about modern materials, people here will not care about the technical specs. You would be better stating the obvious on a ultralight backpacker forum.
"The Bed of a mountaineer is an article neither complex in its nature nor difficult in its adjustment. A single buffalo robe folded double and spread upon the ground, with a rock, or knoll, or some like substitute for a pillow, furnishes the sole base-work upon which the sleeper reclines, and, enveloped in an additional blanket or robe, contentedly enjoys his rest." Rufus Sage, Rocky Mountain Life, or Startling Scenes and Perilous Adventures in the Far West, During an Expedition of Three Years, 1846
"I had for bed purposes, the half of a buffalo robe, an old camlet cloak with a large cape, and a blanket. I spread the robe on the ground, wrapped the blanket about my feet and the cloak around me, throwing the cape loosely over my head to break off the moonshine, and a saddle for my pillow. And oh! I always slept most profoundly. We had tents, but it never raining and but little dew, we did not use them." John Ball, The Autobiography of John Ball - Across the Plains to Oregon, 1832, 1925
Papers of Francois Charles de Bourlamaque, 1757, who at the time was commanding Fort Ticonderoga in New York.
Summer Equipment For the Officer: 1 capot; 1 blanket; 1 woolen cap; 2 cotton shirts; 1 pair of leggings (mitasses); 1 breech-cloth; 2 skeins of thread; 6 needles; 1 awl; 1 firesteel; 6 gunflints; 1 butcher knife; 1 comb; 1 gunworm; 1 pair of moccasins every month; 1 tomahawk.
Winter Equipment For the Officer (in addition to the summer equipment above): 1 bearskin; 2 pairs of short stockings (socks); 2 folding knives; 1 pair mittens; 1 vest; 1/2 aune of blanket to make leggings; 2 pairs of deerskin shoes; 1 greased deerskin; 2 portage collars; 1 toboggan; 1 pair of snowshoes.
Summer Equipment For the Soldier: 1 blanket; 1 capot; 1 cap; 2 cotton shirts; 1 pair of breeches; 1 pair of underpants; 1 pair of leggings (mitasses); 2 skeins of thread; six needles; 1 awl; 1 fire steel; 6 gunflints; 1 butcher knife; 1 comb; 1 gunworm; 1 tomahawk; 1 pair of moccasins every month.
Winter Equipment For the Soldier (in addition to the summer equipment above): 2 pairs of short stockings (socks); 1 pair of mittens; 1 vest; 2 folding knives; 1/2 aune of blanket to make leggings; 2 pair of deerskin shoes; 1 greased deerskin; 2 portage collars; 1 toboggan; 1 pair of snowshoes; 1 bearskin.
Referencing another military campaign from the same year, a letter published in the Boston Gazette, April 18, 1757 (the letter being dated April 12, 1757), describing the French-Canadian army lead by Francois-Pierre Rigaud, Governor of Trois Rivieres against Ft. William Henry, at the time commanded by Lieutenant Colonel William Eyre, we are provided a very similar list: "This morning an account was bro't to town, that a large army of French and Indians were seen at a small distance from the German flats, but few here believe it. Sir William Johnson is still in readiness, with 1500 of the militia. Every man in the French army that came against Fort William Henry, was equipped in the following manner, viz. With two pair of Indian shoes, 2 pair of stockings, 1 pair of spatterdashes, 1 pair of breechees, 2 jackets, 1 large over-coat, 2 shirts, 2 caps, 1 hat, 1 pair of mittins, 1 tomahawk, 2 pocket-knives, 1 scalping knife, 1 steel and flint, every two men an ax, and every four a kettle and oyl cloth for a tent, with one blanket and a bearskin, and 12 days provision of pork and bread; all which they drew on little hand-sleighs." From the way the letter is written, it appears that every four men had one oil cloth tarp, one blanket and one bearskin. This may simply be poor wording with respect to the blanket and bearskin. It is more likely that each man had an individual blanket and bearskin, while sharing a tarp. This list refers to a winter gear list, as the gear was pulled on sleighs across the frozen Lake George. This account was re-published in The Performing Arts in Colonial American Newspapers, 1690-1783 by Mary Jane Corry, Kate Van Winkle Keller, and Robert M. Keller