My friend sent me a link to a news article with a bit more information. It looks like you were right, at least about the Bargetto family outing. There's no mention of them being able to build a fire, one of their tents started to leak, and they had two pairs of wool socks among the four of them.

On the other hand, they did a lot of things right once the storm hit. They set up camp instead of trying to hike out, they didn't panic, they were able to squeeze four people into the remaining tent, and they took turns clearing the snow away from the tent so it wouldn't collapse.

So on the whole, I guess I'd give them a C, maybe a C+, but certainly not an A. <img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

Yeah, staying in one place was a good thing, and they did use something orange as a signal for aircraft. They used what they had, and came out OK. The Sierras can be un-forgiving in summer, let alone October. Glad the storm didn't last longer.