The last several hundred feet (pitches 9-13) were easy enough that we were comfortable unroping and putting the rope away and scrambling on our own in approach / tennis shoes. At one point when I thought we still had at least 300 feet of climbing to go (according to my altimeter) Joel looked up and saw some tourists peering over the edge and waving at us, who couldn't have been more than 100 feet of climbing above us. All the same, the last hundred feet were quite tricky and we came to dead ends several times and had to down-climb in order to find an easier route. As we started to see trash among the rocks (food wrappers, orange peels, and most disgustingly, a discarded wag bag) we knew we must be close to people despite the fact that we could no longer see them. The last two moves were some of the hardest, which led us to get some rock climbing gear back out so that Joel (wearing tennis shoes) could be protected for one or two 5th class moves with stomach turning exposure below... probably a thousand foot drop to the Mountaineers' Route below. But, after surmounting these obstacles, we were all of a sudden on level ground, standing only feet away from the benchmark proclaiming the summit of Whitney at 14,497 feet, as well as a stone summit hut / emergency shelter and literally dozens of tourists who were improbably enough camping on the summit in stone rings to protect them from the winds. The time was now 10 minutes before 8pm and behind us the sun dropped behind the high sierras as if it had been waiting for us to finish. Joel suggested that the 10.5 mile "mule trail" that most tourists take might be a 3 hour "jog" for us so that we could get back to civilization and get pizza in town that night. While possible if we were both in peak shape at that point, I (perhaps a bit too firmly) put the kibosh on that idea and proposed that we rehydrate, eat our remaining food, get some rest in the summit hut and then think about how to get out of here. Since it would soon be dark, taking the Mountaineers' Route which relies on much visual navigation in order to be safe was not going to be an option unless we waited for morning. Still, we considered this option since there was at least one other hiker planning to sleep in the summit hut without a sleeping bag or pad. Thinking this was a feasible if not-so-luxurious option, we talked with some backpackers over "dinner" (energy bars), and prepared to "bed down" for the evening on the wooden floor of a stone hut at 14,497 feet.