After watching the video at the top of the article, I'm willing to cut him some slack. He says that he was notified of his best friend's death on the way to the mountain and left his backpack behind even though he brought it to the mountain with him. As he said, he probably should have just turned around and gone home instead of continuing with his day given his emotional state.

That said, you are absolutely correct, some simple, relatively inexpensive gear would have gone a long way to improving his situation.