I made it up to the top on July 20. Some highlights:
- No snow or ice on the trail (this applies to the Main Trail; there may or may not be some snow and/or ice on the Mountaineer's Route)
- No issues with getting your feet wet at any of the stream crossings despite some recent afternoon rain showers
- There's plenty of water flowing on the lower switchbacks. Last water source is about halfway between Trail Camp and the cables.
- There were a ton of WAG bags on the trail this time. Ugh!
- I saw a ranger at Trail Camp at around 1 PM who picked up the trash and the WAG bags I saw earlier that morning. He didn't ask for my permit but may have checked others.
- Traffic (number of hikers on the trail, number of tents at Outpost and Trail Camps, and number of cars in the parking lot) seems to have returned to normal.
- There are 3-4 boulders on the trail, probably from the earthquake, but they're all very easy to go around. There were no rockslides that day.
- There are plenty of WAG bags available at the trailhead.
- Bugs are present but are barely noticeable. No need for headnets or insect repellent.
- The sky pilots in the higher elevations (over 13,200' ish) are blooming, but those in the lower elevations (~12.5K - 13.2K feet?) seem to have wilted. There are still some nice purple flowers in Trailside Meadow.
- I didn't take Diamox and didn't have any problems with the altitude. For acclimatization, I drove from sea level to Mammoth Lakes (8000') on Friday afternoon (7/17), did a short one-mile hike from 9000' - 9300' on Saturday afternoon (7/18), drove from Mammoth to Whitney Portal Sunday afternoon/evening (7/19), and started hiking the Whitney Trail early Monday morning (7/20) just after midnight. I found that a similar acclimatization schedule has worked for me in the past, but I do get AMS symptoms if I go from sea level to 11000' without spending at least one night at 7000' or higher.
- The summit register is back in its original location. Based on the number of entries in the register and the number of people I saw on the upper portion of the trail, I'd estimate that 30-40 people made it to the top that day.
Approximate weather & sunrise timeline:
4:30 AM: Skies are no longer pitch-black. You can tell that it's slightly brighter in the east than it is in the west.
5:25 AM: No need for headlamps
5:44 AM: Sun appears above the horizon
6 AM - 9 AM: Almost completely clear skies
8:55 AM: First small cloud appears in the west
11:30 AM: Skies in the west are almost completely overcast, can't believe that some people are still heading up even though they're 2 miles from the summit
12:30 - 1 PM: Got rained on at the lower switchbacks. It's more like a drizzle than a downpour.
3 PM: Got rained on again between Mirror Lake and Trailside Meadow, but the rain isn't heavy or long. Heard some thunder in the distance.
4 PM - 5 PM: No rain, but cloudy and breezy
6 PM: Mostly clear skies and calm winds again | 
