this time of year, the peak of the cinnamon-red alpenglow on the east wall of Whitney is about 600-615am. That means the sun has already risen if you are on the summit.
predawn purple wakes me about 445-500am when camping anywhere in the area, so it would be sooner than that on the summit. This 'pre-color' can be seen (no headlamp !!!) and watched for a long time leading up to the other colors as they march through the box of crayons to sunrise itself. It is important to be there way before sunrise in order to see the whole kaleidoscope. Sunrise is just the culmination, it is actually pre-sunrise that you need to be there for to get the whole show.
It takes me about 3 hrs to reach summit from Trail Camp or Guitar Lake. Your trail speed may be different, but if I had left at 200 with you, arrived at 500, the show would already have begun. Sounds like you needed to start a full hour earlier, or more.
If you are using a headlamp while hiking, you will need to leave even earlier to reach the summit, turn it off , and allow 30 minutes for good eye dark adaptation.
The eye takes 20-30 minutes to fully adapt to complete darkness and become far more sensitive than at full daylight. Importantly, the eye's perception of color changes as well (the Purkinje effect).
One last thing: A simultaneous setting full moon in the west at the same time would be cool, although its brightness ( like the recent one Aug 11) would interfere somewhat with the show in the east.
Let's see what others think.
