Indeed.
Also most cell phones have a compass. If he knows he has to go north or south based off the initial direction, he could have easily found his way. Knowing that the sun goes East to West, he could have used that with no compass. Or the direction of the moss, which is north, or the lean of the trees based off general wind direction. A combination of where the sun is with moss, means he now knows where the general direction of North and East are, giving him where West and South are. This is BASIC non compass based ways of finding your positions without a map or compass. Plus everyone knows you always mark your path just in case, with a carving, a mark, or something, just in case
Am I the only one who always brings a spare phone battery bank when hiking? That extra pound or two of weight = GPS, compass, flashlight, communications, etc in a pinch. Heck, the last time I got lost (5-10 years ago) it was a simple matter of combining an offline map of the area + climbing on top a ridge for a solid GPS fix and then picking the direction that guaranteed I'd hit a road if I kept walking in the same direction.
Sure, it wasn't fun to hike up ridgefaces and through thorns and streams, but...some mild discomfort is a whole lot better than giving up and waiting for a helicopter like a Millenial.
Also that helicopter aint cheap, and he's lucky the helicopter could even access his location. A lot of times, the chopper can only get near and not at the exact location, chopper aint gonna go down trying to help some dumbass who got lost 2 miles away from the nearest road
yep.
So much basic knowledge lost, its infuriating
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