"it seems that there are a couple of really steep chutes further up the trail. A couple of weeks ago, I vaguely remember getting off trail a bit on our descent, looking off a ledge to my left and thinking, 'We're not supposed to be here' then heading to our right until we found the trail. "

That shaded area does not appear to line up with photos of where SAR was descending to retrieve the body. I think the deviation point may be at the hairpin turn on the small ridge dividing the Wotan' Throne drainage from the Lone Pine Creek drainage (aka dividing the Mirror Lake bowl from the Consultation Lake side). It's at about 11,482 (3500 meters) or so. He was found at an elevation just below that: 11,450. Coming down, if you missed the hard right switchback, you'd walk right down into that chute. Maybe that's what you have in the photo, and it's distorted? It's hard to tell, but the placement of the trail seems off - it would be on the other side of that ridge.