Thanks for the comments/info on this thread. I made the trip and climbed N. Ridge with a buddy on 18-19th and it was pretty darn smoky, but not totally unpleasant. Approach and bottom half of ridge on 18th was less smoky than the upper and descent on Sunday. Winds must have shifted at some point to push the smoke south/southwest from Cougar Creek fire.
Such a phenomenal climb, turns out you don't necessarily have to have vistas to have fun (though they would have been nice). Def no distance photos, Sherpa was just barely a silhouette, but like Rad said we had cool sunrise/sunset. Otherwise, climbed in perpetual orange dawn/dusk light all day long, which was kind of eerie.