Non PC Plod - I would not recommend anything but MP crewing for this kind of operation.
With appropriate training, a 4-person SAR crew working well together can mitigate a lot of the risk, with two sets of eyes up front and lots of nav assist/sensor info/lookout input gratefully received from the rearcrew. Situational awareness is everything in that environment.
I suspect sadly that no collective program input would have saved them in this case since they may have been below the min speed for some modes to be engaged and the collective input would have had to have been quite considerable to outclimb the mountain.