“...it was pouring rain, and there was deep snow and slippery ice at the time of the incident, ...”
Gradient is not just The Elixir of Youth, under some weather conditions, it can kill you.
And it was pitch black at 5:30 pm a few days after the winter solstice. Plus hiking near a cliff in this conditions?
What an idiot.
Why do I think alcohol was involved?
Mount Baldy near Los Angeles can develop ice chutes and maybe once a year a hiker will step on one and fall hundreds of feet to their death.
One of my neighbors was trying to rescue a Cub Scout who had wandered off trail, and while doing so he stepped on a chute and was killed.
Darwin was cheated...