I tend to come down on the side of leaving the wilderness alone as much as possible, but I have to admit I have mixed feelings about that area. It sticks out in my mind as one of the most deceptive bits of trail I have encountered, and the whole Whitney trail tradition is pretty far from being a wilderness situation to begin with, not the same as doing something to the E-ledges on the mountaineers route or whatever (although it is my understanding that some effort was made to keep people from taking a low route on the ledges that people were falling off of).
The only solution in this regard is to cherry stem it but that is not going to happen. No California pol would propose it.
Much of what we are seeing today goes along with the new hiking ethos. Let's meet in the parking lot for the first time and go out as individuals, we share a permit but we are not a group. There is safety in numbers as long as the numbers are kept reasonable.
