He had GPS coords in photos turned off. He sent the photo before he got lost, then his phone died, then he realized his predicament. Yeah, hikers who know WTF they are doing generally don't end up in the news like this. This is distressingly common on the 10,000+ ft peaks near Los Angeles, like these folks: https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/hikers-survival-san....
All to plant an American flag on the top of a mountain. I truly hope the hiker didn’t actually lose any fingers or toes but I do hope they were made to reimburse SAR cost and fined for littering.
A non-expert climber figures a tough hike is basically like any other hike they've been on, only a little harder. They don't recognize how large the gulf is between a tough hike up a mountain and a treacherous life-or-death situation.
https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/highlands/2014978/...
Edit: There are ~20 deaths per year on Scottish mountains