I hesitate to comment on such threads about "coulda, shoulda, woulda", from my armchair....but....I will say this about that:
There have been times when I was driving along under the cozy conditions of my car...on the freeway...wider than a trail...not steep...and the "whiteout" (be it fog, clouds, snow) moved in and I could not see beyond the hood of my car, and suddenly, straight was not so easy, and damn that freeway lane got reeeeaaaal narrow...and was that a curve coming up? Hyperventalation soon followed. Ever flown under a hood? Up is down, and left is right...or wrong...or steeply off the "trail" -- no matter what the instruments (GPS, Loran C...or just plain gyroscope) are screaming at you.
As I recall, an experienced femal hiker was lost/fell from a very well known Baldy trail last year, under some zero visibility conditions.
Well, time to recline the chair and contemplate some hot chocolate. Whatever the actual personal weather conditions were for those hikers, at least they lived to tell, as some do not.
