I'm from Europe too but it sounds reasonable to me. I think the key thing is whether he thought himself in need of rescue or not. The article doesn't say wheth

I'm from Europe too but it sounds reasonable to me. I think the key thing is whether he thought himself in need of rescue or not. The article doesn't say whether he was eg. a city-dweller inexperienced in the outdoors, but if he was, it might never occur to him that he was sufficiently lost to need outside rescue. As he said, he just "bounced around" between the trails until he found his way back. So he might have considered all the phone calls merely a distraction.