Sounds like the dude was just fine. I agree with most lost is a relative term. Ask the hiker he was....Answer probably would have been " on Mount Elbert"...so not lost he knew where he was.
Another reason I make fairly loose itineraries when hunting. "I'll call you in the next day or so" is as specific as I like to get. This year was my first year with a GPS tracker (Spot)...dumb idea. For some reason it didn't send a signal 1 night and the following morning from where I camped. Made the wife more worried because I had the ability to "contact" her and let her know I'm "ok". Otherwise she would have just thought "oh he must not have service" and that be the end of it.
^Not all the world but the USA has for the large part.....some are not soft thou. The fake news media realizes that 'human interest' stories get more hits than actual news stories. Hence 'America's daughter' their best story for the year.