Sounds more to me like the guy had his "ten Essentials" without the operating manual. He is fortunate to have survived. He did one major thing correctly, he had friends that knew his plan and they notified the SAR folks. Probably the most effective survival thing anyone going out can do in advance. Especially if they have limited knowledge of nav and/or survival techniques.

Lesson was apparently not completely learned though if he was out again without a flashlight. If you are an ounce counter, the LED headlights of today are really light! Makes map reading much easier at night. Well, I guess his map reading skills were the same day or night (without a light), he still couldn't figure out where he was. Glad he is ok though, hope he learns from all this.