I think there is a bit of misunderstanding about what I meant with hiking out. My comments where only because it's Whitney with very specific terrain. I had not bothered to comment anymore on it because there are too many variables that like mentioned cannot be seen from the comfort of my chair.
I was once in a very bad storm where my hiking partner insisted on hiking out while it was dark and there was no way I was going to do so in the storm so I stayed put while he left.
