I agree with the LandNav fail angle. Even with a GPS without a map loaded, he still had a GPS with which he could have added waypoints (where the car is parked, trail head, turn point 1, turn point 2, snowhoer fell HERE, Snowcave 1, Snowcave 2, ...). Instead he complained that the GPS had no map. That was a fail. Without a map in your GPS, you still have a GPS, use it wisely.

That said, they spent two nights on Mt Rainier in pretty bad conditions when prepared for a dayhike. Overall, not a failure at all.