Wow, great story!
+ and a big cheers! For ingenuity and creative use of whatever resources at hand!
- A simple button compass stashed away somewhere and he would simply walk back to shore without incident. (Well, not totally true - walking back along a different route he may cross areas of rotten ice).
- A cell phone would make a much more reliable signaling device than a camera flash (I would be astonished if he was out of cell coverage area).
As always there's a lot of details we don't know, so I won't jump to more conclusions than I already have. All is well that ends well. And experienced means someone who has gotten away with doing the wrong thing more often than you have.