As I cross Dusy Basin toward Thunderbolt Pass, the sun chases away the night and the beauty of the Sierras erupts around me. Climbing steady but not fast, I arrive at the summit block of Thunderbolt Peak around 7:30 a.m. and sign the register. The summit gendarme is slingless making me really focused on the 5.8 moves. But the game has rules and this is one of them. You must tag the top. I laugh out loud at the absurdity of this goofy contest we have created. Already I'm having fun.

An hour later I have traversed to Starlight Peak and an hour after that to North Palisade. I'm moving pretty slow but I don't care. It's a long way to Timbuktu. My favorite part of the traverse is the climb of Polemonium, which only takes about 10 minutes from the U-notch. Then it's an easy one-hour scramble over to Sill where I meet a couple of climbers on the summit. One of them, Gordon, laughs at seeing me eating pizza. They have nothing but Gu. What can I say? I want to enjoy life. It's 11:45 a.m. as I start my descent to the southwest.

Down in the talus fields below I am mindlessly weaving along when to my left I notice movement. Looking over I am startled to see a young woman relaxing in a bikini top beside a boulder not 30 feet from me. I stutter, "Whoa, a person!" I think I've scared her. Probably my Charlie Manson looks. She tells me her father is climbing. I look around. Weird.

Farther along I see some other folks wandering around in the talus. I wave and continue. Is the backcountry really this crowded? I mean, there's no trail within a couple hours of here.

Eventually, after several hours of tedious scree and more talus I arrive at the west face of Middle Palisade. Having been here a month earlier, I am not eager to climb this pile of rotten rock. Confusing and dangerous, the west face is not recommended to anyone except perhaps the rare individual who wants to try to climb these mountains in record time. I top out at 5 p.m. and am down by 6 p.m. Hustling down to the John Muir Trail I almost make it over Mather Pass before it gets totally dark on me.

— Jack McBroom, MountainZone.com Contributor