Brief report:
Started walking at 2:00am from the skier parking lot. By the bergschrund, I didn't see the boot track (which I saw on the way down), so I climbed 10 feet of nearly vertical ice/snow on the farthest left part of the bergschrund and got onto some rotten loose rock. I basically digged my fingers on the hard dirt to get a hold on my left hand while I swung my ice axe with my right hand. The left chute on the Pearly Gates was a bit icy (crampons were useful in this section). Anyway, I reached the summit at 6:40am. Sunny, but windy at the summit. Stayed there for a whole 40 minutes. While at the summit, I met Alex (a climber from Montana, who came up via the Cooper Spur route and asked me for a ride back to the Tilly Jane trailhead/campground since I told him I was heading towards Mt Adams next and it was on the way). We both left the summit at 7:20am and were back to my car at 9:00am. I then dropped Alex off at his car on Tilly Jane campground.
Additional info about climbing Mt. Hood can be found here.