No, it was still their fault. Most of the party was relatively poorly provisioned, and inexperienced at long overland travels. They were warned about how bad the trail was, but chose the advice of the shopkeeper who had never taken the trail over the advice of the men who had actually been on it.

They reached the Great Salt Lake too late in the year, but still elected to press ahead regardless. Once they reached the lush valley before the pass they again decided to press on, despite it being late October. And so they got trapped. They had no-one skilled at fishing or trapping, and they hunted too close to the camp, so their gunshots scared away all the bigger game. Honestly it’s impressive any of them survived. If they hadn’t found those cabins they probably wouldn’t have.