Well, that's the key, from an outsider standpoint. If it were just himself getting lost and killed, that would be sad, in a "too bad he wanted to die" sorta way. However, it turns out to be a huge effort and expense, putting others lives at risk, to save this putz from himself.
Of course, it's not just blind people who do this. A lot of rescue situations would have been avoided if the rescu-ees had used common sense.
I know the rough area this happened in (I grew up about 30 miles east), and the article’s not kidding. We’re not exactly talking the Rockies here, but the area around Punchbowl Mountain is pretty rugged.
I used to help provide amateur radio logistic support for an event called the Mountain Masochist Trail Run every fall; it’s a 50-mile “ultra-marathon” that’s run from the James River Visitor’s Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway at US 501 all the way north to Montebello, VA. Looking at a Google map, I think the course ran right by where he was found; it didn’t use the AT itself, I don’t think, but it used other county roads, Forest Service roads, and hiking trails that ran very close to it.
}:-)4