Persistence in the face of very small odds may well pay off, as it did here:
"... A 25 year old climber, from Bangor, had a miraculous escape when an airborne helicopter crew eight miles away noticed the flame from his cigarette lighter through their night goggles. He was clinging to a ledge, having fallen more than 100 metres into snow...' (Guardian, today, 'Boy, 6, dies after falling through ice on pond, p 5.)
Please can this thread not end up as another moral high-ground, armchair critique full of speculation.
Let's be glad that this fellow managed to get away with it.