Brief report:
3rd time was the charm after two previous attempts (sept 2002 and aug 2004). My partner on this climb was Gibran Begum. We started hiking from Glacier Lodge at 8pm Friday and made camp at the First Lake at 11:30pm. We slept in Saturday morning and didn't get going until after 10am. Encountered pretty good snow coverage starting with the slope up to Sam Mack Meadow. Found a great snow dug out camping spot like 300 yards east of the Palisade Glacier tarn/lake. Rested the rest of the afternoon (melting snow, sorting gear....your usual camping chores). At 3:30am Sunday the alarm went off and left camp at 4:30am. To my surprise we reached the bergshrund by 5:50am (in my other 2 previous "late season" attempts, it'd take over 2 hrs to reach the 'shrund). There is a snow bridge in the bergshrund that is not going to last very long....from what I saw the bergshrund is going to be problematic later this season as it is split into one big gap and a smaller one lower down. We had hard snow (no neve; I wish we had neve). We climbed the U-notch unroped and we're at the top of the U-notch by 7:30am, where moderate winds greeted us and kept me cold when I wasn't moving. We rested here and geared up for the 2 rock pitches up the chimney. Started up the chimney at 8:05am. I led the first pitch while Gibran took the second. Between routefounding and avoiding snow/ice covered ledges, we didn't get to the summit until 10:30am. The summit register needs a log and a pen/pencil as of June 19, 2005; there was not a summit log there, just the empty cylindrical metal canister. We were back again at the top of the U-notch by 12pm. Took another long rest here....sheltered against the wind. We started down just before 1pm by rapping down the last pitch (also the steepest) of the U-notch. Then, we just carefully downclimbed the rest and keeping a keen eye for the 'shrund. We made it back to our camp around 3:30pm (11 hrs after leaving it). Broke up camp and hiked out just before 5pm. Got to the Glacier Lodge trailhead by 8:40pm, where my sandals never felt so good. Home in LA by 1:00am Monday.
Additional info about climbing North Palisade can be found here.