I remember reading about this. He was actually lost, in that he strayed from his trail and didn't immediately know how to return.
Rescuers were alerted because a family member had reported him missing after he didn't arrive home on time.
As the story goes, to the best of my recollection, the "lost" individual went for a hike and said they would be back before sundown. When they got lost, they obviously missed that deadline. They were biding their time in the forest until daybreak to try to find the trail to get back because it was too dark to look for it. So while he was "lost" it was mainly because the sun had gone down. He didn't feel like he was in any danger, and wasn't at any risk of immediately being harmed or killed; AFAIK they were reasonably familiar with that forest and they were more than capable of surviving in those conditions; so he had no motivation to seek help.
What's more likely is that in his panic he wasn't thinking quite straight. It's very common for people to make decisions that seem silly in retrospect in situations like this.
So .. if he could receive a call ... couldn't he make a call to someone he knows?
I remember reading about this. He was actually lost, in that he strayed from his trail and didn't immediately know how to return.
Rescuers were alerted because a family member had reported him missing after he didn't arrive home on time.
As the story goes, to the best of my recollection, the "lost" individual went for a hike and said they would be back before sundown. When they got lost, they obviously missed that deadline. They were biding their time in the forest until daybreak to try to find the trail to get back because it was too dark to look for it. So while he was "lost" it was mainly because the sun had gone down. He didn't feel like he was in any danger, and wasn't at any risk of immediately being harmed or killed; AFAIK they were reasonably familiar with that forest and they were more than capable of surviving in those conditions; so he had no motivation to seek help.
TL;DR: guy didn't feel like he needed help.
Article about it: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/hiker-lost-24-hours-ignored-rescuers-calls-because-they-didn-n1282381
What's more likely is that in his panic he wasn't thinking quite straight. It's very common for people to make decisions that seem silly in retrospect in situations like this.