One more thought:
A hike up that trail is like a Jersey pizza: even when its bad its pretty good.
I have backed off Whitney twice: once at TCamp for weather and once at TCrest for my partner's AMS. One trip was from SoCal, but the other was from Connecticut, and I wouldn't have aborted either plan for lack of a summit. And that was in the old days, before the quota. Now, the opportunity is so rare, I would treasure that permit and use it, even if I knew there was a high probability of having to back off. When you see that alpenglow on Wotan's, or that first sunrise over the Inyos, you'll know what I mean
