Hmmm. . . not defending some obvious poor decisions that he made, but an article did state that this was a one day planned event, and he ran out of water three days later. At least he had 3 days worth with him. Still, I have to wonder about not having a detailed flight plan and or other communications gear. For most folks that only venture in these types of areas, I can understand not having a satellite phone, but to knowlingly and wllfully keep going through these areas, I would have expected him to have a satellite phone. He has after all climbed many of the 14k peaks in the area. That said, it is entirely possible that given his particular location (canyon type area?) that even a sat. phone might not have acquired a good signal.

Regards,
Comanche7