Tom, congrats again on a successful summit and excellent adventure on Whitney! Enjoyable TR and photos. Glad you got on and off the summit before the storm brewed up too badly.
Big difference hitting Trail Crest without the 400-pound AMS gorilla on your back, huh? Makes the last 2-plus miles to the summit a helluva lot more enjoyable. And I think the club of hikers that detest the last 2.5 miles between LPL and the Portal is pretty large. Next time you can cut about 15 minutes off that segment by turning right at the John Muir Wilderness sign and taking the old original trail down (un-signed, but it's there). It comes out by the Portal waterfall near the wooden bridge at the picnic area. It's steep and not maintained, so using it coming down is a lot easier that going up. You also bypass the North Fork water crossing by doing this.
Congrats again!
