We weren't the fastest on the route, mainly because dh is a photography nut and has an SLR which stays in his pack. So every time he wants to take a photo (which is often), I take the camera out for him, and put it back. Sometimes he'll walk with it in his hands, but it depends on the terrain, and scenery. So we stopped often for photos. We summitted around 2 p.m., left the summit around 3:30, and got back to the car by 9. We used our headtorches from Outlet Camp on, and it was no problem at all. Even ran into (not literally) a bunch of deer in the dark on the way down. I would have liked to see the scenery that we missed...next time!
When we hike trails from home that we've done often, we don't tend to stop much or at all until we get to the summit.
We found our 18 mile training hikes more difficult than Whitney, mainly because the terrain in the Adirondacks can be exhausting to travel over, since you have to pay attention all the time to the trail and where you're placing your feet. Also our pace was faster during the training hikes than the relaxing pace, with lots of photo stops, that we had on Whitney. However, there are no scree slopes on the Adirondack trails, and of course, no altitude issues.
