The skill and knowledge he demonstrated by successfully navigating to the deep interior of a difficult cave at high altitude did not emerge from nowhere — it reflected either personal capability developed through experience, or the transmission of specific knowledge from experienced community members who had been in the cave before him, or both.

The fact that he died there — that he did not successfully return from the cave — tells us something about the risks that such journeys involved, but it does not diminish the capability required to have reached where he was found.

Getting to the deep section of Hourglass Cave, especially for the first time in an unknown cave, was a significant accomplishment.

The fact that it proved fatal does not change that.