Being a SAR team leader myself:

" My guess is they probably could have walked to safety after the storm passed if they'd wanted to"

When a storm hits like this and people are overdue you assume the worst and go looking. Guessing is not an option.

" in fact, one of the groups of climbers on El Capitan refused rescue."

Nice to have that option huh.

"Just because SAR goes looking for you doesn't mean you're lost;"

No, but SAR doesn't know this until they find you. SAR don't go looking for people for fun, these groups met the lost criteria.

"and just because they find you doesn't mean you needed to be rescued. "

No, but nice to have that option because they went to look for you. An explanation of why you were overdue would be nice for SAR and friends and family.

Flip