For the whole section from Whitney to Russell I'd most recommend dropping your pack at the Russell Carillon Col, climbing the E. Ridge of Russell, returning, and then take the easy sand slope to UBSL. You can get from the 13,200 to the 11,200 UBSL in 1-2 hours. The sand makes the descent quick, easy, and fun.
From UBSL, dayhike up the MR and then pack out.
That's more or less how I was going to handle that section between Russell and Whitney this past September.
I had planned to go with the same high points plus a few others and come up Shepherds Pass. The route was to be Shepherds, Tyndall, Willi, then go XC south from Willi and tag Trojan and Barnard, into the Wallace/Wales/Tulainyo area, and finally up the Russell-Carillion Col and then going on as stated above. My hiking buddy decided he had bitten off more than he could chew when we camped the first evening at Mahogany Flat so we ended up base camping next to the big rocks near the Tyndall Polychrome Saddle and hiking Polycrome the second day after making the pass and heading up the north rib of Tyndall and down the south side to the Wright Lakes Basin. Not a decent I'd recommend btw - nasty, steep, nasty, loose talus and scree; then it gets cliffy about 500' from the bottom.
here's my TR over on HST:
http://www.highsierratopix.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=15119
