(just a note – glad to see the trip report forum still here. thought it was gone forever when americas roof shut down)
This was an instance where it was better than the first time. We climbed this peak ten years ago and it was awesome to savor this park a second time in the summertime. When we were here 10 years ago, we missed out on the summer flowers and flora. Heed the warnings about hiking in the heat. By noon it was already 93 degrees.
We started out at 6:10am and it took 3h 19m 50s (10 seconds short of 200 minutes)to summit. We got back to the trailhead at 12:41pm. Took us longer to get back since I developed some serious blisters from some ill fitting boots. Despite the discomfort, we thoroughly loved every minute of our adventure. Returning to GMNP was something we wanted to do again.