unqualified to add but..
In Diving we would call this a spiral of disaster. As many of you have acknowledged, he chose to put himself in danger. "Being late in this world is better than being early in the next" is something I learned a long time ago, and I hope when I am qualified to fly over mountains in marginal weather Ill remember to think again and stay on the ground. Just as a matter of interest a friend of mine and I watched a helicopter going up Glossop in Longdondale last week in light drizzle and found the clouds had rolled down off Crowden and Kinder and boxed him in. But he was in a helicopter and could find a field to set down in. A Cessna OR ANYTHING ELSE at that altitude would have been in a hopeless situation other than to risk climbing into the traffic inbound to Manchester and calling for assistance.
Sad for the loss of life but really was this the best choice given the wx at the time? How ever well qualified he might have been, even 15000 hour pilots have been known to make bad decisions.
Thanks for the continued insight into GA . I find learning from other peoples mistakes coldly effective.