Hiking before sunup is dangerous, so be sure to only do it when the dangers from late hiking grow to be larger or if there is a significant prize to be gained from finishing early (pizza)
Yup, it is very often that the risk trade-off favours starting early. There’s a term alpine start for a reason. Whether it’s impending weather later in the day, or snow conditions will warm increasing avalanche risk, or the objective is just so long you want to make sure you’re back down on the easy bit. Had the latter last month. Did a traverse is seven summits and even with the 6am start it was dark by the time we got down from the ridge and back into the valley. Trail ran our way out by headlamps, singing dumb songs to not spook any grizzlies. Such a good outing!
