East Face of Mt. Whitney

The East face of Mt. Whitney, 5.7 13 pitches 1,000 ft of climbing at altitude. A fairly short but steep hike from Whitney portal trailhead at 8,300 ft. up to Iceberg lake 12,600 ft puts you a short approach to the base of the climb. This hike took my friends and I 5 hours to get to Iceberg Lake. I don't think I would have wanted to do it any faster.
An Alpine start is fairly easy considering the route is on the east side and you will for sure be up at the fist sign of light on the horizon. You wont want to miss the Whitney crest bathed in Alpine glow.
The climb itself is not at all technically challenging. Mostly 3rd to 4th class scrambling that you can simul-climb to move faster with a couple of actual climbing pitches along the way. The fist pitch is a traverse. We simul-climbed the washboard in about 20 minutes. The 5th pitch is a one move wonder over a block that could easily be simul-climbed as well. Which we did that put our party at the 6th pitch on the second tower. The down climbing pitch is just a fourth class down climb that could be done by a confident climber. The fresh air traverse is technically the route finding crux but it is pretty obvious where you are supposed to go if you study the topo. The 8th pitch is the only pitch that I thought was actually good climbing. A 5.7 chimney with some great exposure and cool stemming moves. This puts you at another 200-250 feet of mostly 3rd and 4th class climbing which we also simul-climbed. Pitch 10 has another cool chimney but a very short one. Then more easy scrambling. The last pitch or two to the summit is just blocky and not that stellar. More time consuming than difficult.
The descent is the mountaineers route. This route sees allot of traffic so it is very obvious and easy. A couple of hundred feet from where you top out the climb is a steep gully with towers lining the right side. Head strait down 4th class scrambling to a notch between two towers. Pretty obvious climber trail leads to this notch. Once in the notch you are staring straight down to Iceberg Lake. You can glissade straight down to your campsite. Our total descent time was 40 minutes. Probably much longer if there isnt any snow in the gully.
We hiked in the first day, rested and tried to get some sleep. Got an early start, climbed for 6 hours then hiked out to our cars on the second day . The hike out took about 3 hours maybe a little less.
For anyone reading this if you can make the time bring extra food and consider doing the East face one day and the East Buttress another day. Possibly Keeler needle as well as the Fish Hook Arete on Mt. Russell. There are so many cracks up there just begging to be climbed. If I had it to do again. I would have definitely spent another day up at Iceberg lake and climbed the East buttress as well.
I read on supertopo.com about a couple of guys who did the East face and the East Buttress car to car in a day. Sick Bluh!