This forum has been a great source of information in my preparation for Whitney hike, so now I thought I'd share some info with those planning their trips.
Started at 4.30am with a buddy. Hike to trail camp took about 4 hours from Whitney portal - patches of snow along the way, but regular hiking fare in all.
Don't know why, but almost no one we met used the cables to go up or down - so up the chute we went. Had micro spikes and hiking poles, which came in handy, also some people had neither to go up (and some actually succeeded). Took 2.5 hours to go up the damn chute and no more than 10 minutes to slide down on our butts, which was fun to boot! Just be sure to be in control of your acceleration. Snow was 1-2 feet deep throughout the entire chute section.
Reached trail crest around noon, at which point altitude made itself known in the shortness of breath with every few steps up. Most dangerous section in my opinion was the first 0.5 mile or so section of the trail from the crest with a few very narrow snowed up sections along the trail with sheer vertical drop offs below. Take your time there for sure.
Summited around 2pm, we were some of the last people that day on the top. Going down to the trail crest was just as dangerous as going up due to the narrow sections mentioned above. Made it back down to the portal parking lot by 9pm. Headlamps are a must!
In all I think 40-50 people made summit that day, almost all by camping somewhere along the trail which is the smarter thing to do vs. a day hike. Had a permit, but wasn't asked for it that day, also the day before saw two rangers chasing a "sack of lying sh1t" down the mountain.
