Wow. This is the second time this year we've seen a news article about lost souls who managed to survive, not by sheer dumb luck but by staying calm and using their heads.
The Sierra Sun link didn't work for me but I assume it's the same story as this one:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/05/BA5FURQ6F.DTLOkay, they could have been better prepared. No map or GPS locator, their only lighter didn't work, and they assumed that, because "everything was wet" that they wouldn't have been able to start a fire.
But on the plus side, they did have plastic bags to melt snow for drinking water, and they were able to build a snow cave (even though neither of them had ever tried it before), so kudos to them for not giving up or panicking.