I can't add much past Baxter Lake area, but that area south is home, First I would avoid Old Army Pass and use a shortcut east of Lake 5 , a little hard to find but exits onto the area just below the summit of Langley, then off Langley drop westerly into Little Soldier Lake , over the small saddle just at the southend of the lake , join a faint use trail to Sky Blue Lake drop down Crabtree Pass to the sand slog back up to trail crest , travel on the west side of the tight ridge , join the Main trail hit Whitney then down the mountaineers Route ( options) either do the normal route up Russell or one of the class 3/4 climbs , off of Russell take the North ridge down to the Wallace drainage.
We had a dream one trip to do the 12,000' contour north of Wallace but found it was much faster dropping down to the JMT. Same with the crosscountry from Baxter Pass across the ridge line back to Kesarge, Take a snack and a buddy, another area it was close to That Day order flowers, what day is the service and color of suit.
One of the search and rescue guys wrote a great book on your trip His Name is Glen Bouabaugh I don't think it in print any longer or this is his correct spelling but some one on the board may have a copy. If I recall it was the Sierra High Route , and he did the crosscountry access route to many of the peaks,If I recall South to North . He wrote the book based on many years doing the routes.
And another book /report I just recalled some modern day climber repeated all the first climbs some years ago following the "first routes and gear used " great read , and hints at how the old school climbers did some amazing things .
Have a blast , another hint when my brother came home one day and said he was building trails I ask Why !
