My hiking partner and I also turned around on 9/8/14. We were at Trailside Meadow at 2:00 a.m. hoping for an early morning summit and finally gave it up after watching the black sky churning above us. We descended in heavy rain and lightning. I've wondered what if we had stuck it out to see if it cleared. Thanks for your post and pictures, I see we made the right decision.
You definitely did. I'm guessing our groups may have passed each other on the trail.
I talked to Doug at the Portal Store. He said that the only person that he knows of that reached the summit started from Trail Camp @ midnight. Apparently above 13k, the trail was covered with ice once the rain started.
