I will submit my trip report later. I did the day hike on 9/11 (Monday) with couple of my friends. We started around 1:30am and two of us summited at 11:30am and another one summited around noon. I think thunder and lightning started around 1pm when we were about 1 mile on our return trip. I never seen anything like that, we were really scared. Although dark clouds were forming around 10am , they were getting cleared after some time so we kind of took a risk. I don’t think I will ever do that again. The strange thing is that some people were still going when we were returning! I understand it is a very difficult decision to make when we are so close to the Summit but after experiencing the lightning, I don’t think it is worth taking any risk. The snow patch crossing near the summit became very slippery but it was manageable with poles and careful footing. We returned to portal around 8pm, we had to hike the last 2-3 hours in the rain but it was okay as we had rain jackets and head lights. All the water crossings were easy to cross with the support of poles.
