Here is something I have found useful to keep me out of trouble with hikes in particular Mt. Whitney. I set time limits for myself. The main goal of the Mt. Whitney hike is to get back to the trail head safely. However long it takes you to get to the top it is probably going to take you at least 60% of that time to get back. So if you take 10 hours to get to the summit it will take at least 6 hours to get back down. If it takes 12 hours to get up it will take at least 7 hours to get back down. So If it takes you 10 hours to get to Trail Crest, this might not be the day to summit. It just depends how much you want to walk in the dark coming back. The longest part of this day hike is coming back in the dark. By the way take a watch, something wierd would happen to my mobile phone up there where I would have to take the battery out just to see what time it was.
