I know it's a bit late but I was backpacking out in the Cottonwood Lakes area from the 8th through the 11th. Camped up near Long Lake when the fire started. Heard a couple of loud bangs on the 9th(sounded a lot like the detonations you hear coming from Camp Pendleton military exercises down near where I live north of San Diego) certainly an unusual sound in the backcountry.

Watched the smoke billow all day from what appeared to be the parking lot, until probably 4 or 5 helicopters came in with buckets and tanks to suck up water mainly from one the South Fork Lakes nearby. Quite a sight to see. They ran all afternoon until just after dark. As well as a few fly overs from what appeared to be a rescue chopper. We were just about ready to get helivaced out of there but nothing ever happened.

Next day, the 10th, we planned to day hike Cirque Peak and on the way up New Army Pass ran into a few people that said that had actually spoken with the rescue chopper pilot near the Cottonwood Lakes. Said they were prepared to get carried out, but I guess it didn't happen. By this point the smoke had diminished significantly, but the choppers were still making their rounds picking up water from the lakes. They continued in fact all day till just after dark once again. Made the view from Cirque Peak all the more impressive!

Anyway, next day we hiked out past Golden Trout Camp back to the parking lot. It was eerily quiet, with no one being allowed to enter the wilderness we didn't see anyone all day. Just the choppers buzzing overhead.

When we got back to the car midday on the 11th the parking lot was pretty quiet, no rangers or "escort" of any kind. We just loaded up and started to drive out.

Before long we rounded a bend on Horseshoe Meadow Rd and saw the whole mountainside burned out. Tons of various fire trucks, forest service vehicles, hot shots, and firefighters all down the road working on controlling the fire. We never did get any kind of escort, but we never felt in any danger driving down the road.

Finally at the bottom a somewhat confused looking police officer moved some cones so would could get through the road closure and down into Lone Pine.

Suffice it to say, I don't think anyone hiking Mt. Whitney was in any immediate danger. The prevailing winds, at least where we were, were pretty strong toward the North-East. And the fire seemed to be fairly well in control by midday on the 10th.