Well, from my location Germany is located pretty far to the south... Using the afterglow as direction indicator is pretty inaccurate in most circumstances - but it is fairly easy to say "THERE" is the center of the most intense part of the afterglow.

If that direction is to be used with any precision it requires a bit more astronomical knowledge than the average person possess. Still good enough to take the after glow as "west" (or south west, in my location at this time of year). If you have a rudimentary map image in your head that is plenty good enough to hit the shore. Even so, it may be quite a bit longer before you eventually hit the shore at an angle far from 90 degrees.

If you have limited orienteering skills you may not think of that option. Or may not have confidence that it works. Or try it for a couple of minutes, but loose confidence because you did walk far enough to see land. Or be scared of potential rotten ice in any direction other than your track out there. Or the afterglow was obscured by clouds. Or any other number of variables.

Granted, the afterglow wouldn't be due west, and it was maybe an unfamiliar place to him, but...

Last winter a man and his two kids (13 and 10, IIRC) were snowmobiling out on the Great Lakes or somewhere 'up there'. The father dropped dead and a whiteout of blowing snow descended. The boy took the snowmobile and his sister and followed the only thing he could see, the faded glowing orb in the sky to shore.

Sue

On some of the bigger lakes in my region, an ice fog can rise after sunset. Many of the bigger resorts use rotating beacons on the shoreline to guide ice fisherman back to the landings. No excuse to be without a compass though.