Glad that he's ok. There was an interesting line in the story that I've found to be true also:

"I'm told (that) once you get up to the summit and you start heading back down, it's very easy to become disoriented and actually get off the trail,"

I've had kids with me that would have wandered back down on the wrong side of a mountain without some guidance. When you're going up, to the summit, you can make some mistakes, but, if you're still climbing, you usually get to the top... coming down, however, there are often lots of places where you can turn down the wrong switchback and end up at a very different place than you started. In NH, in the Whites, if you go down the wrong side of some of the Presidentials, instead of ending up at a friendly AMC building, you could end up at the base of the Great Gulf Wilderness, with no shelter for many miles, and all of it requiring almost another summit attempt to get to a trail that will lead you out!

When you're climbing, always look behind you, and notice what the trail forks look like from the other direction. (Tip from grandpa back in the stone age, or when I was a boy, as my son would imply.)