If they could not help the man than why provide for and waste precious oxygen to him unless there was hope?
You are not accountable for me. My Freedom and my will belong to me. I don't welcome others dictating to me what I should do and I don't want, or expect their help. I do not appreciate other folks forcing their decisions on me. You are not my keeper and the Bible gives no one the authority to claim they are. Nor does the Bible give you the authority to call someone an idiot.
That view is a little extreme. Suffice to say that western culture and law and ethics are predominately based upon the Bible and the Christian Judaic principals. The opposite is China with no morals or basic love of humanity. My father witnessed this in Korea as a Marine with countless hordes of humans slaughtered by the Chinese as they place no value on human life. He climbed many peaks in the Sierras in his youth that had no names at the time and sold some of the first mountaineering gear available in California.
Suffice to say that we were not there and only those present can be the ultimate judge of their conscious. But when ever possible regardless of the circumstances or the individual, human life must always take priority over any endeavor. That is why Apollo 13's mission changed from getting to the moon to getting our men home and the moon was the ultimate assisted climb with oxygen.
Yes even idiots must be rescued. I have talked with Navy SAR teams that must helo in to places like Yosemite and rescue climbers off the face of Half Dome or El Capitan because of dumb mistakes by climbers and navy personnel risk their lives with their Helo at the limits and operating margins at altitude on hot windy days with their rotor tips inches away from disaster. Rangers risk their lives as well. They are paid to and do it and it is their job because we expect them to do it because our society still has principals even when the lawyers blur it and obscure it. Some how money always seems to obscure doing what is write. Just because you own a million dollar ship does not give you the moral right to leave me adrift in the sea if I need aid.
No, nobody can judge these men accept themselves for their actions if they were right or wrong, but I suspect that out of 40 people who passed this human being and left him to die going up and coming down again that they do not have some sleepless nights as their soul questions did they do the right thing that day? Individually they maybe could not but collectively I suspect they could have.
This was their attempt to help. The O was required to evaluate his condition. They did that and concluded that, there was nothing they could do. It's that simple.
" That view is a little extreme."
No it is not. It's called Freedom.
And Rangers are trained for the task. But were ANY of these people trained mountain rescue professionals? Were they packing extra rescue gear? Probably not.