Glad they are OK.

I am a BIG fan of what personal locator beacons can do, and I heartily recommend folks heading into wilderness bring one along. They are so cheap and simple to use today.

As I've said before here, I am big believer in people going into wilderness bringing a good paper map of the area, a compass, and a GPS (even a very basic one will do) ... and KNOWING how to use them together.

They have to know how to take a waypoint from the GPS and find it as a coordinate on the map, so they know where they are. For this I like https://maptools.com/ tools and tutorial.

If they can know exactly where they are, often just using the compass can help them know the correct directions when faced with a choice.

They have to know how to navigate using the map, compass, and even the GPS so they can find where they need to go. There are lots of online tutorials!!

If using the GPS to help with navigation they need to know how to take a coordinate from the map and enter it as a waypoint in the GPS. Again, see https://maptools.com/

That means that the GPS and compass magnetic declination need to be set so they can work with each other.

I prefer everything set to true north bearing (as opposed to magnetic north). This is why I prefer a baseplate compass with adjustable magnetic declination. Of course when planning for the trip they'll need to determine the area's magnetic declination (about 2 or 3 degrees west of true north in that area). See https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/geomag/declination.shtml

I'd prefer they save (I suggest both on paper and in the GPS) key waypoints before the trip. I also prefer to leave the GPS off most of the time to save batteries - only turning it on when necessary.

That makes self rescue possible.