I missed the part about the PJ's being dropped off 15 miles from the snow cave; that is a long hike in those conditions. I like the overall plan; Plan A would be to pick them up directly with the HH-60. But they simultaneously activated Plan B with the PJ's hiking in, rather than waiting for Plan A to fail and then activating the back-up -- which could make for a very long delay. I wonder if the AF can write this off as training...