It happens.

On the scale of gear vs skill, he chose poorly, but he had gone out in warm weather. So it wasn't like he loaded up with new toys and took off without ever having used them. Most of us would have taken more, with the plan of leaving it in the pack unless we needed it, though, or trained closer to home. *sighs*

With the right mentor, he might still be alive. Or maybe he slipped and popped out his knee or broke his ankle or knocked himself out by finding a rock with his head. All of those greatly increase your odds of losing to hypothermia. And having a buddy with you a great thing for that reason, I don't care how much time you have in the woods.

I would rather have seen colder temps than this stuff- we've been having the same kind of winter here in Vermont and I'm not going out in it. This is lousy weather, warm enough that you sweat easily and think you can go lighter than you really can, cold enough to kill dead right there. I did one solo last summer where I was planning on going no-fire, so I hadn't even gathered fuel. A little after midnight I had to grab the little stuff and badly load my pack, then get out to a shelter that was heated becuase I was shivering badly enough I almost could get my headlamp turned on. And that was in the high 40s.

It can get any of us. He looked to be in good shape, and he had more experience than most people.