Given there was very little light, with the phase the moon was in, plus if it was cloudy it seems extremely strange that they were able to navigate to that area with no flashlight etc. It wasn't a matter of just going straight down the slope. There were trees all around them and trees that much closer and easier for the others to find them if they did separate as some people speculate. To have to find some of the party, in the dark, doesn't make sense to me