It's great that they're both fine - that's the point of the search and rescue effort. But I question the PIC's judgment if - repeat '"if" - he did not carry and know how to use a 406MHzGPS PLB, especially on a flight in such a remote and inhospitable area.
(ozaggie: Those PLBs speak an international language that lots of people hear and respond to very quickly. Even if there aren't aircraft at altitudes on air routes in the general area who are likely to hear the 121.5 homing signal, the SAR satellites are always orbiting up there listening out on 406. That's why they are there. Having the latitude and longitude of the beacon helps to focus the search and facilitate assistance as soon as practicable. It helps a lot.)
For my part, if I have to do a forced landing, I'm switching on the aircraft's ELT, and activating the PLB on my hip, on the way down. I practice it. I've already briefed any pax on how to do both themselves, if I fail to, as well where the spare PLB is and how to activate it. It's possible that all those gizmos will be damaged during the forced landing, along with the POB. But even a few seconds of activation (and a rushed mayday on VHF/HF) may be enough to alert someone, and not many more seconds may be enough for the PLB to provide accurate position information to a satellite. It's the difference between immediate, focused attention, and a needle in a haystack search over thousands of square kilometres, hours later when it dawns (sunsets?) on someone that something may have gone wrong.
If my friends and I are in trouble, I'd prefer the former.