Not to mention the lighting storms are freaky dangerous and plentiful. When we were in Colorado in 99, fifty six elk were killed in one herd, during a lighting strike. The ore deposits in the mountains just naturally attract it. We were after a 3-stud group, one strong male, one weak male and a female that could hold her own with a little guidance. The first element is the skill level that a student has, the second is their mental toughness and confidence and the last is their physical toughness.
Every attribute plays off of the other.
Becoming misoriented just happens and if you spend enough time in the sticks it happens to everyone. If an individual was evading in enemy held territory, its just a given that knowledge of that specific terrain will probably be sparse. So, what an evader does after becoming misoriented is a big factor in solving the problem. With the weather conditions deteriorating it was going to be an adventure to get to the studs before things got ugly. If they kept moving trying to finish the exercise it would makes things more difficult.