Brief report:
Started at 4:45am from the Glacier Lodge day hiker's trailhead with mdostby. We were both moving slow in the morning....I guess coming up from sea level in less than 12 hrs didn't help either. We got to Sam Mack Meadow at about 10:00am. Took a very short break here and pressed on. Then, around 10:30am, Mike tells me that today he just doesn't have the energy to do the peak (btw, Mike started it all about 2 years ago when he told that we should day hike/climb most of the California 14ers). So, after 10:30am, I was going solo. I pulled out the ice axe and deployed crampons for the section across the Palisade Glacier before gaining the class 3 chute that leads to Glacier Notch. The North Couloir itself was pretty much melted out; there was perhaps 100 feet of snow climbing. Then, I arrived at the supposed-to-be class 4 section. I climbed it with my LaSportiva Makalu mountain boots and it seemed to me class 3, but I guess you can make it class 4 and even class 5 the further climber's left you go. I reached Mount Sill's summit at 2:01pm. I encountered three other people up there who came via Elinore Lake. One of them (Margina Rhyne of Bishop) took my summit picture since I didn't bring a camera. I left the summit at 2:15pm, down the North Couloir, down the class 3 chute back to the Palisade Glacier. I ran into no one from Palisade Glacier to summit back to Palisade Glacier. I then took a ten minute break at the creek 500 below Sam Mack Meadow and then continued on to the trailhead. I arrived at the Glacier Lodge trailhead at 7:50pm, where Mike greeted me with a cold beer. All in all, a huge day!! (more so than we anticipated). Next year I have my eyes on the Swiss Arete.
Additional info about climbing Mount Sill can be found here.