Several years ago, the same thing happened to me. I had a group of 10 who individually paid the $15 permit fee immediately after we received news from the permit lottery in late February. As we got closer to the August hiking date, everyone got cold feet and had some of the most pathetic excuses I've ever heard. I ended up going with one person from the original group and found two very experienced backpackers from my office. In the end, it worked out really well as we enjoyed the view and overnight stay at Trail Camp, made it to the top without any problems and had very favorable weather. After arriving home, I realized that four or less is just right and anymore would had been perhaps too frustrating for me and difficult to organize in terms of finding camp sites, carpooling, splitting the weight of backpacking equipment, etc. When I showed photos of the trip to the 8 who did not go, they were really sorry that they backed out. Hope it works out for you.
