I think one of the big lessons from this case is the importance of prevention, or "it is easier to avoid a trap than to claw your way out of one".

In the outdoors or any situation where resources are limited, the value of prevention is multiplied beyond its usual value in resource-rich environments. One of the chief takeaways I got from wilderness medical training was not how to do brain surgery in the woods with a paperclip (though I can do that ), but how vitally important it is to avoid seemingly simple problems: hypo/hyper-thermia, mobility killers like ankle injuries & trenchfoot, etc.

Because once you get in the hole, it is hard to extract yourself.