Maybe a job search is in order.
This kind of situation is not that unusual. An exhausted group of 12 people leaves one behind.
In all seriousness, I suspect that “picking up the trail markers” was in the spirit of cleaning up after yourself – i.e. - the spirit of “leave the wilderness as clean or cleaner than the way you found it”.
Come on. The last guy picks up the trail markers. If you’re not absolutely certain you’re the last guy, you leave ‘em.
I used to be on Colorado Ground Search and Rescue. People do dumb shit all the time. Exhausted people even more so.
That is freaking horrible and inexcusable. Buncha city slickers.
It sounds scarily like the couple who was left in the water to die after their snorkeling tour boat left without them.
When I was in the Boy Scouts, in summer camp in NY, we had a multiple patrol hike from the PX to our campsite. I was a patrol leader, and on the way we picked up a kid abandoned by his patrol for being too slow. He was seriously lost.
Assholes start early.
Unless this batch of brilliant businessmen couldn’t count high enough to realize that someone was missing.
WHY are the “leaders” of groups like this not doing periodic headcounts? I’ve done that while watching kids in a church nursery with the door firmly closed and the parents of said munchkins actually in the building! (Plus possibly siblings, other family members, family friends,…)
Egad. There cannot be other explanations than rank stupidity, ignorance of many types of teamwork, ignorance of the outdoors in general, and…yes, probably malice. Maybe profound brain injuries on the part of the majority party.
Excellent leadership ability displayed on the part of the “leader” (I’m sure there was one who probably bleated out his or status at every opportunity).
Yes, I know one can become confused in an extreme ™ situation, but maybe don’t do it without the ability to recognize one’s incompetence.
That’s despicable behavior.
I was once on a tour of Stonehenge with a tourist group out of London. They carefully counted heads so they wouldn’t forget anyone…
…and drove off without me anyway.
Stonehenge is out in the middle of Salisbury Plain. There’s nothing there except tourists and tour buses.
I tried to get some of the tourists to give me a lift back to Salisbury, where 'd maybe catch my tour bus. Or at least catch a train back to London. But nobody would give me a ride. So i rode back on another tour bus, at the cost of being a Good Example ("Now if you get separated from your tour group, do what this young man has done…)
I was on a cruise once where the people at the table next to us were discussing if they could delay a member of their group on-shore long enough to miss the embarkation. I have no idea why everyone disliked this person, but they did seem serious about finding a way to leave this person on Grand Cayman.
Leaving behind the corpse of your abandoned teammate is also littering. 
Um, nobody forced the guy to continue the climb, right? If you leave the group who is going another (safer) way, whose fault is that?
It’s the guy’s own fault. His decision, his problem.
I see no reason to blame the group.
Our activities director here at Walking Dead Manor is positively anal about head counts on van trips to places like the arboretum or even just to a movie theater. Counts them when they get on, when they get off, and when they return. If someone is missing, she hunts them down. Old people and confusion don’t ya know. It’s reassuring to know you won’t get left behind, though.
Out in the boonies, I would never stray from the group. I have a terrible sense of direction, especially when there are no landmarks. You gotta know your limitations.
On field trips, I’m damn near pathological about counting heads. When parent chaperones notice and comment, I tell them this story:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/24/us/caving-indiana-university.html
That article mentions a “buddy check” at one point, “His buddy told the leaders that he didn’t see Mr. Cavar, and it was assumed he was with the other group.” Big mistake making an assumption like that.
Oh lord: being lost in a cave is one of my nightmare scenarios. Seems to me there was recently someone who ended up dying when he was trapped headfirst in a dead end. ::shudder::
Unless you are a graduate of a rigorous school of outdoor rules (this is also called Horrible Experience), you are more apt than not to make stupid decisions even when you are fed, hydrated, warm, and rested.
A couple years back I went on a trail ride with a local riding club. I asked, “who has the first aid kit?” Well, it was me, only because I always carry one.
Then I asked, “who’s riding drag?” Nobody ever heard of riding drag. I couldn’t keep the “guide” in sight and still watch the stragglers because she had a fast-walking horse and liked to let her stretch out, but clearly, someone capable had to watch them, they were too inexperienced, and the guide wasn’t going to wait for them. Within a couple hours, a novice had fallen off her pony and broken several ribs, maybe four miles out over some rough country. The “leader” was so far ahead I had to gallop after her screaming, to get her to notice this calamity. It was a holy mess. Never rode with them again.
I probably should’ve quoted the worst part:
He wasn’t lost for long. For most of the time, he was on one side of a locked gate, looking through it at the outside world that he could not reach.
So yeah, nightmares.