Woke around 4:00 am again.  Rick and I both tossed and turned for the next hour and 45 minutes, cat-napping.  Got up at 5:40, out by 5:45, 41 degrees.  Uh-oh:  Totally overcast - not good.  Walked up to Al’s tent and discussed it with him; we decided to delay til 6:30 and reassess.  Walked up to the bear-bags, startling a large mule deer in the small clearing across  the stream.  Took the bear bags down just as Todd, Hugh, and Ted came up.  I coiled one rope for use as our safety line (if needed) on the ascent or descent (better to have it "just in case"), and used the other rope to raise the remaining bags (getting pretty light now).  The overcast showed signs of clearing by 6:15, so I woke the rest of the climbers at 6:30 and we got our stuff together.  At 7:10, I called everyone together and we went down the checklist of stuff to bring along.  Took Ted and Mark out to the meadow, and discussed our expected route and timeframe: We anticipated one half hour to the treeline, 2 ½ - 3 for the climb and 2 - 2 ½ to descend.  With an hour on top, leaving at 7:30 am would equal about a 2:30 pm  return.  Told Ted and Mark not to worry about us unless we weren’t back by 6:00 pm or unless it started raining heavily around noon (in which case we’d take the longer (and much safer) way back off the back side of the Peak, coming back through Jackass Pass and by Lonesome Lake).  After thinking about it, I went ahead and tossed a flashlight in my daypack "just in case."

We actually left at 7:40.  Gave a "good morning" to the wranglers in the field, and we continued over the North Popo Agie River and up the slope.  At our first break for water, Ted yelled up from the meadow asking if we needed the Earthwalk map; he had chased us across the river to make sure we had one (we did).  Worked our way up through a tough jackstraw forest, no real trail, but lots of elk tracks (and we found what I think was an elk bone on the way up).  Once out of the forest, we were into a tough shrub-covered area (the stuff they call "gorse," I guess) for several hundred feet.  No trail here; you just had to fight your way through it.  Then that thinned out to grass and rock.  Al, Chris, and Charles split off about halfway up the wash and took an inside straight line up the right side of the draw; tougher, but more "fun" to climb.  Luke, Todd, Matt and I took an easier but slower hike up the center of the wash.  Either way was quite hard, but we didn’t seem to be experiencing any altitude effects - I guess the last few days at altitude had us well acclimated.

We got some very light drizzle for about 10 minutes, which threatened mandatory cancellation – but it quickly faded, and we continued on.  Al’s group cut right at the first draw, but we continued up further, cutting right at the second draw.  Tough climbing up the steepest stretches!  One unusual aspect of the climb were the myriad of flowers on the way up - some of which had an almost overpowering odor of sage and geraniums (even though they were all quite tiny).  There were even some oddly shaped and colored high-altitude bees hitting on them.  But a little higher it was mostly just plain rock with little vegetation anywhere.  Our group lost sight of Al’s group altogether when they crested the ridge, still driving up the steeper sections on the right.  The wind became a factor as we reached the ridgeline, but it wasn’t as bad or as cold as I had expected.  In fact, it was still hot enough climbing that we were just in t-shirts, gloves, and occasionally hats.  Some altitude effects now, but not too bad.  Cresting the ridge, we heard Al’s crew yelling "The Peak, Baby!" but we still couldn’t see them.  [We learned later that Chris had stepped aside to let Al be first up, in honor of Al’s extensive planning for the climb.]  For us, the last stretch up was intimidatingly steep, and Luke and Matt suggested we call it a day right there.  But I pushed them on, saying we’d stop if it got too difficult, and let’s not quit 150 feet from the top unless we have to - and besides, if Charles could make it with a bum knee, we should be OK too.  So we pushed up a little further, and in fact it turned out it wasn’t as bad as it had looked from below.  Chris finally appeared at the edge and talked us up to the top.  The last 20 feet was probably the roughest of the climb, almost technical.  I was the Tail-End Charlie, and last up, standing up at 11:45 to a spectacular 360 degree view.  12,482 feet elevation, so roughly a 2,500 feet ascent.  Breezy and mostly overcast, but all in all not bad.  In addition to Luke, Matt, and Todd, Chris and Charles were on top - but Al was off scouting the back-side return for us.

On the peak itself, there was a small rock cairn and also a self-installed plaque by Mitchell, listing his 8 ascents from 1923 to 1973; he was 70 years old on his last climb.  According to Al’s guidebook, this guy was the old man of the Wind River Range, having cut many of the trails and stocked over 2 million trout in the local lakes.  Many "mommy shots" (both solo and group) were taken, with spectacular vistas in all directions.  [Photos: 1, 2]  We could also see the clear area just outside our camp, and a sudden plume of smoke from the campfire circle confirmed that we had been spotted.  With that, we sat down for a quick lunch (mainly peel and eat stuff and some cashews).  Keeping a weather eye out, however, I noted a distant front of clouds slowly moving in from the west, so I suggested we depart (after about 45 minutes on top).  We descended off the back side; much easier - basically an easy slope downward for a half mile, at a reasonable grade, then swinging back around to the left through a giant boulder field, and down to the crest that overlooked the wash overlooking Lizard Head Meadows.

The climb down from the crest was another story, however: Very steep and difficult at the start, with lots of loose scree, and we took great care in picking our way.  Al kept everyone aware on not walking directly below anyone, and giving "rock" warnings.  Matt and Charles were both somewhat intimidated, and descended very slowly.  Al and Chris pushed ahead a little bit to pick the easiest route.  About halfway down the scree field, we were treated to a nice view of a Bald Eagle.  Finally the scree gave way to the boulder field we had ascended (before we cut to the right), and then to a mixture of grass and boulders with an easier downward slope, varying between 30 and 45 degrees or so.  The powerful sage/geranium smell of the mountain flowers also returned as we hit the grassy areas.  Took much longer than I had expected to get back to this point (considerably more than it took to climb up).

Once we reached the gorse level, Al and Chris pushed over to an avalanche cleared zone on the left which got us down fairly quickly.  Just as we headed back into the trees, Chris and I saw a weird overgrown mouse-like animal (gray) that notified the world of our presence with odd birdlike chirps.  I asked the group to keep up the chatter as we headed into the gorse/tree mix (to alert any bears to our presence); no problems.  Surprisingly, we re-discovered the elk bone we saw on the way up on the way down; Luke snagged it.  Finally down, crossing the wet meadow and creek (I managed to dunk my left foot getting across the creek).  In the main field, we met wrangler "Aaron" from Roanoke, VA; we chatted briefly.  Then past the horses (still hobbled and with bear bells attached); they seemed unconcerned with our presence.  On the main trail at last, where we met Mike and Sam heading to Lonesome Lake to fish.  Despite all the trout we saw rising on the river, apparently only one fish was caught near camp all day, so they were going to try fishing the lake instead.  I guess the weather front killed the fishing.  In camp at 3:35, Hail the Conquering Heroes!  Apparently we were not seen going up or coming back during the entire day (the smoke we saw coming from the camp when we were on the peak was just a coincidence).

At 4:30, two distant booms of thunder confirmed that our weather front had arrived at last.  Rain moved in (from the southwest) within 10 minutes.  Rick and the guys piled extra wood on the fire to try and keep it going (successfully, as it turned out).  Rain was sporadically heavy and light til 5:30, then cleared; it was significantly cooler after the front passed.  I wrote diary in tent from 4:30 til 6:00.  We fixed dinner after the drizzle had ended:  Soup, taco-potato-beef TVP blend, cookies, and lemonade.  A little too much food again, despite the voracious appetites of the climbers.

After dinner, we discussed the relative merits of staying at Big Sandy Lake vs. pushing on all the way to the Big Sandy Trailhead the next day; two of the adults at least had to go all the way to the trailhead to help get Rick and Chris on their way (they were going on to Gannett Peak from the Wind River Range).  We eventually settled on sending Al and Mark ahead with Rick and Chris, while the rest of us stayed at Big Sandy Lake (which is supposed to be a gem of the Wind River Range, so why miss it?)  Al and Mark would do the van shuttling thing after dropping off Rick and Chris in Jackson Hole, and would drive the vans back to the trailhead the following morning.  Rick and I also discussed what Crew equipment to separate out for their Gannett Peak trek.  Once we had that figured out, Mike and I went out into the meadow and discussed the day’s climb, then Mark and I also discussed photo-taking after we separated tomorrow.  I pushed everyone to re-sort their packs after dinner.  We did a pretty good breakdown, and got most of the crew gear packed away.  Luke, Neil, Chris and I handled the bear-bags, then we all enjoyed chatting around the campfire until 8:45, then bed.  Almost clear skies at this point - looks to be a cold night.  I’m pretty whipped - could only write diary til about 9:15 tonight, getting some info from Rick on what went on in camp while the rest of us were climbing Mitchell Peak.

[The rest of day, from Rick:  Thomas slept very late, until after breakfast.  Neil still wasn’t feeling well, and spent much of the day relaxing and reading.  Hugh and Thomas went fishing after breakfast, and were joined later by Mike and Sam.  Unfortunately, despite great promise (many rising trout), the fishing wasn’t very good; no-one was sure why.  Rick relaxed and tended the fire, and occasionally looked for us on Mitchell Peak.  He "may" have seen us briefly at the crest at 1:00, when we were coming down (he wasn’t sure).  Later, Ted, Mark and Neil walked around Lonesome Lake.  Hugh and Thomas followed them to try fishing there.  Mike and Sam helped set up the tarp around 2:00 when light rain moved in, then headed up to Lonesome Lake themselves (which is when they ran into us coming back).]