I don't know if anybody would ever read on this thread again - but just for sake of follow-up, two years later:
The man in the middle, hiked the whole HST last summer (2012) with his son and daughter, and summitted Mt. Whitney. I think, due to schedule constraints, they were forced to limit the trip to 4 days!!
These two boys (men) - both just turned 18. Both just graduated High School, both just earned their Eagle Scout awards, and last Saturday, hit the trailhead in Yosemite for the entire JMT, so they're going to summit Whitney eventually, anyway. The HARD way.
Proud of these guys!
