Once again I was up in the middle of the night. After crawling out of the doily I spotted another shooting star the second I turned off my headlamp. I hoped it was a good omen.

I fell back asleep and then woke before my alarm. I served as camp alarm clock again, waking up the other tents. Tim D grumbled something about needing to upgrade me to include a snooze button. This wouldn't be a real early alpine start, as we needed enough light to negotiate the moraine field, the jumble of rocks sized from trash cans to rooms left by the retreating glacier.

At 7 am we were moving up the trail, the Tim's and I definitely worried about the weather. We still had clear skies above us, but thicker clouds were massing in the northwest. Once we reached the moraine we meet up with two climbers from Utah who we would be leapfrogging all day.

After an hour of hiking, we paused at the glacial runoff to filter water for our summit attempt. We crossed the stream flowing out of the Gooseneck Glacier, and followed it uphill to the glacier itself. The two Utah climbers had taken a steeper route directly up the lateral moraine separating the Gooseneck and Dinwoody glaciers, and accidentally dislodged a few rocks toward us. Luckily, we were far enough away that the rock fall only gave us a scare.

At the glacier we kicked steps in the top layer of soft snow and worked our way up a gully of snow to another rock patch between the two glaciers. A few spots were icy enough to require our axes to improve the foot holds before transferring our full weight. With no slips we reached the rocks and enjoyed another 15 minutes of boulder hopping.

We paused where the rocks ran out and four of us strapped on our crampons. Tim B had climbed this route before and was comfortable without crampons. We traversed from the rocks across the upper part of Gooseneck Glacier to the bergschrund, the uppermost and permanent crevasse on the glacier.

The bergschrund stood between the glacier and the snow gully leading to the ridge at the pointed rock known as Gooseneck Pinnacle. A guided group of climbers with Exum guides had reached the bergschrund just before us, and were preparing to cross the snow bridge. Tim B soloed up across the bridge ahead of the group, while we uncoiled the rope and tied in.

I would lead Helen and Cheryl over the bridge and up the gully. The bridge was in excellent shape, otherwise crossing the bergschrund could have been a major challenge. We rapidly climbed up the gully and traversed to the right to a patch of rocks next to the Exum group.

Here we untied from the rope and removed our crampons. While we still had snow to cross, it wouldn't be so steep and was unlikely to be icy. Plus we would be constantly switching from rock to snow and back.

We started out just after the Exum group and soon caught up with them. As we moved higher up we could see more climbers reaching the ridge and snow gully below. There may have been some 30+ climbers on the mountain that day. Not all started where we did. In fact many started in Titcomb Basin, a shorter approach route, but their summit day involved first climbing and descending one pass, then traversing a glacier to meet our route. Many of these climbers had left their camps at 1 to 3 am.

We found ourselves above all the other climbers on the ridge and felt a little decadent for our relatively late 7 am departure from camp. But it looked like we would be the first group to summit this morning.

The views improved as we climbed higher, with the whole northern Wind River range of jagged peaks, alpine lakes and glaciers spread completely around us. Looking down to our right was a steepening snow slope that had we slipped, would have dropped us some 1,000 or more feet lower onto the Gooseneck Glacier. Best to not think about it. Helen admitted she had the Simon & Garfunkel song "Slip Sliding Away" stuck in her head.

Unfortunately, our vantage point also showed the weather could be worsening. The clouds were definitely not breaking up, but massing and growing darker. They also seemed to be lowering. Descending in a white out wouldn't be easy, and Tim B and I agreed that we would make our summit visit as short as possible.

We reached the summit about 11 am, only 4 hours from base camp, and very close to Tim's prediction. Our climb was definitely helped by his knowledge of the route and previous experience. I found the highest boulder and stood on top to celebrate my 45th state highpoint, then set about to greet Helen, Cheryl and Tim D as they arrived on top.

My fathers birthday happened to be today, so I had packed in a 3 foot folding "Happy Birthday" sign and held it up while Helen took a picture. He has accompanied me on several of my point trips and always been a big supporter of my quest.

The Utah group arrived soon after, and we cajoled them into taking a group picture for us. After we returned the favor, we headed down, praying to clear the gully before any the weather got any worse.

We passed quite a few climbers on the ridge headed up, including most of the Exum group, which I found out included a few high pointers reaching their 48th summit. We safely reached the gully and I traversed out and set up an anchor. Tim B half climbed-half rappelled down the gully to untangle the rope for Helen and Cheryl. He couldn't quite reach the bergschrund on our 1 rope, but luckily the Utah climbers had just passed us and offered a short section of rope for us to tie on and increase our reach.

I then lowered Cheryl and Helen down the slope and over the bergschrund, then Tim D and I down climbed the gully. We all arrived safely back at the rocks and removed our crampons once again. The weather seemed to have actually improved a bit, but the peaks to the south were covered in clouds and I expected our bit of sun wouldn't last.

We headed down the rocks, then glissaded down the lower snow slopes to the moraine. Tim B made perfect S-turns in his boots, most of the rest of us barely stayed upright.

From here we had about an hour of boulder hopping to clear the moraine. Around 2 pm, the clouds finally let us have it, and the rains began to hurl down. The smooth granite boulders quickly became very slick. I'm surprised none of us took a bad fall or twisted an ankle in these conditions, but we all made it back to camp around 3 pm.

The rains would let up only shortly and intermittently, so we all ended up eating alone in our tents and waiting out the weather as best we could. I thought long about having left that novel back at the trailhead, but occupied my time with the literature of freeze dried food packets, a climbing guide book to Gannet Peak and fuel bottles.