I don't want to be a pessimist, but you can't survive in those conditions for a week. Unprotected, you won't survive an hour.
It's unrealistic to think the other two hikers were able to get more than a thousand feet away from the cave where the other hiker was found. Especially if they actually headed UP the mountain.
And if they were intent on getting to rescue instead of holing up themselves as it appears, they probably made their last mistake. Exhausted, cold, tired, and dehydrated, they probably eventually just laid down. It's what I would have done.
I'm hoping for rescue. That would be a very joyful surprise.
I agree, sad to say. I think they would have heard the choppers and popped up today. I wonder if they were hanging in there okay and then suffocated with new snowfall over their air vent.
And yet all we heard for days is how experienced and smart these guys are about this climbing and survival stuff.
Well, you can't BS Mother Nature. These men were foolish, and now their families pay the price.