I somehow lucked out and have the choice of joining either one of two groups for a weekday Whitney hike (due to vacation-time restrictions, I can't go with both). One group has a day-use permit for mid-July; the other has a day-use permit for late August.
We're all extremely fit marathoners and trail runners, but none of us have any experience climbing anything technical. We've never used crampons or even microspikes before, and this will be our first time up Mt. Whitney. We're planning on taking the main trail and not the mountaineer's route.
With that said, which of those dates would non-technical hikers have a greater chance of reaching the summit? How much skill and equipment is required to get across the snow/ice areas in mid-July, and how much of a problem are thunderstorms in late August?
