Rick F has provided more details on the WPSMB forum. He actually helped three hikers from the missing hiker's party descend to Whitney Portal.

Here's his account.

Quote:
On Tuesday, 7/19, in the afternoon, I along with 3 friends, while headed up to Mt. Russell met 3 people from the missing hiker's group. Two men and a woman. We first saw the three 3 hikers descending the steep terrain below the notch north of Whitney-Russell Pass. They approached us near the south side of Iceberg Lake and asked for directions to the "Parking Lot".

My first impression as we saw them descend the steep slope was that they must be experienced and familiar with area. But as soon as we attempted some conversation we realized that something wasn’t right. There was a significant language barrier that made getting details very challenging. They were Korean and didn’t speak too much English. One of the men explained that English was a second language and he was talkative and able to communicate with us but he told us that he did not know which route they had ascended. He said that they didn’t have a map, were not familiar with the area and relied on faith in their “leader”. He explained that they had left early, about 3:00 a.m. Monday Morning. The talkative one somehow lost his pack on some technical terrain when the “leader” lowered a rope to him to assist him. Somehow after that they had become separated from their “leader” after trying to follow him up some steep technical terrain, they assumed the leader was taking them to Mt. Whitney.

They told us that they huddled together on Monday night trying to stay warm. On Tuesday they met a pair of climbers somewhere west of the Whitney-Russell Ridge. The pair of climbers gave them some water and trail mix. According to the lost trio, the pair of climbers pointed them to the notch in the Whitney-Russell and suggested they exit through the notch, descend the slope to Ice Berg Lake, and try to find their way to the “Parking Lot”.
They told us their car was at the Parking Lot which we were pretty sure had to be Whitney Portal. They wanted to get back and they just wanted directions. We told them we would go with them and help them to navigate the route back down the north fork of Lone Pine Creek. They were proud and reluctant to accept our help but we were persistent.

We had tents at Upper Boy scout Lake. We stopped at our camp to take a break and gather our gear. The woman reacted when she looked northwest, up-canyon of Upper Boy Scout Lake and told us that she recognized that was the way they went up Monday morning.
We had phone signal at Upper Boy Scout so we all made calls. The Korean group told us there were no messages and no answer from attempts to call their leader. One of my friends called the Forest Service Ranger and the Inyo County Sheriff’s Department but found that was no report at that time of any missing hikers.

The trio were again reluctant to wait for us to pack up our camp but we explained that we did not want them to go down without our help. We specifically tried to caution them about the Ebersbacher Ledgers. We knew we had just barely enough daylight to descend the ledges prior to nightfall. We gave them more water, hot tea, sandwiches, and cookies. They were very appreciative.

We arrived back at Whitney Portal at about 10:00 p.m. Tuesday night. Their leader was not there. They had phones and thanked us for assisting them. We urged them to call the Rangers and Inyo County Sheriff’s Department to at least report that they had become separated. There was a lot of activity at the Portal as the Badwater Ultra finish-line was set up and the first finishers were arriving. The trio assured us they would be OK and thanked us again for assisting them.

Wednesday Morning we stopped in at the Inter-agency Visitor Center to return a rented Bear Canister. We shared our account of meeting the trio with the Rangers.

One of my friends had exchanged phone numbers with talkative Hiker. On Wednesday my friend called a few times to follow-up on the outcome and find out if they found their leader. They had not. Last night my friend found out from the Hiker and the Inyo County Sheriff’s that the leader was still missing.