A friend and I just completed the long and beautiful day hike (29.5 miles) of Mount Lyell on October 15th. Left at 4 am and summited by 2 pm, after wandering around looking for the way up after crossing the glacier. For us, the ridge at the col worked. Glacier was soft and wet on the way up; icier in the summit shadows. Crossing the moraine field took forever. The last 3 miles from the head of the valley probably took us 3 hours to work through. Got out of the moraines and to the valley floor by dusk and made it back to Tuolumne by 11:15 pm. We used micro spikes to cross the glacier; crampons likely would have been a bit better on way down. Amazing experience.
