I requested an early August permit for Mt. Whitney and may need an ice axe and crampons.
Count on it. The snowpack around Mt. Whitney is over 200% of normal this year. I needed an ice axe and crampons on the 96 switchbacks part of the Whitney Trail back in August of '69 after the huge winter of 1968-'69. Of course, there were no safety cables installed along the trail back then.