KTOA, very interesting. Thanks for posting. A couple of comments:

It would be interesting to know which sat phone they were using? Any satellite device (sat phone, SPOT, PLB, etc) depends on having a satellite visible to connect to. Different devices use different satellite constellations, so one may work better than another in a given situation. For example, here in Alaska and other northern areas, Iridium works much better than Globalstar. Dropped calls are often the result of the satellite moving to a point where it's signal is masked by terrain. Climbing higher to a point with a better view of the sky is always a good thing to try. SPOTs and PLBs have an advantage in that if they even get a momentary contact with a satellite their short message with you coordinates can get out.

One disadvantage of SPOT (relative to a PLB) is that it is a private commercial company, hence a distress message to SPOT must be fowarded to the appropriate RCC. This adds another link to the chain, which may delay things and has the potential for garbled data. A PLB signal goes directely to the RCC, hence there is one less link in the chain. There are, of course, other reasons why one might choose a SPOT. Either is a good thing to have.

Back in the day, (before sat phones, PLB, and SPOT) people doing trips in remote areas of Alaska sometimes carried aviation band handheld radios for just such emergency situations as you describe. This was often the only practical way to call for rescue. I recall hearing of cases where a party in the Brooks Range were able to contact a passing airliner to relay a distress message. It does work.

Having multiple, redundant means of calling for help is a very good thing. If one doesn't work, the others might. In the recent controversial "Rebel Heart" sailboat rescue, they had an EPIRB, SSB, and sat phone. The SSB failed but the sat phone worked. SPOT and PLBs are great, but only send a location and preplanned message. The ability to have two way voice comms with rescuers is huge.