My guess ... and it's a big one ... is that they did succeed and make the summit area of the mountain. But it took a lot longer then they planned, and somehow one of them became injured or sick at the top of the mountain. The three of them then dug a hasty snow cave, and the strongest team member (Mr Gullberg) decided to descend back down to get help. In order to move quickly, he did the descent with light gear and no ropes. However, he was overtaken by darkness and the storm, and therefore attempted the descent under very difficult conditions. He may have tried to re-trace his ascent route. Or just as likely he may have tried to go down the ridge on the side of the Reid Glacier. The ridge would be a safer choice if there was any avalanche danger. Unfortunately, that ridge starts out with reasonable downwards slope, but becomes risky and steep a little lower down on the mountain. A fall from the ridge (or a fall from the headwall) would place his body at about the location where it was discovered.
This seems like a reasonable guess, and personally, I think we can even simplify somewhat.
A team member other than the one found became injured, the injured party and another dug in and the other goes for help. He is overcome by weather.
Doesn't have to be more complicated than that. They need not have been running late, or have made mistakes. You don't have to make a mistake to be injured.
Sometimes the best decisions and the best effort are not enough to avoid a bad outcome. I think sometimes we over estimate our ability to control the outcome.
The only real question I have, is if a PLB might have helped out. Of course, we don't even know they didn't have a PLB. It certainly is possible if they had a single PLB between them it could have been lost or damaged in whatever happened to them.
-john
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