I attempted a big day on monday near Mammoth. The plan was to skin in from Sherwin Creek road and head to the ParaChute. Ski it. and then climb/ski: from the Pyramid Peak zone over to Valentine Lake, then over to Bloody Lake, and then climb the west slopes of Bloody Mtn. Finishing with a descent of the Bloody Couloir and ski back down to the Sherwin Creek road. Bluebird day, light breeze, excellent conditions. Although the ParaChute was full of snow, it was not in great shape. Top half was winterlike and variable to say the least, Bottom half had been baked by the sun and had a bunch of debris in it from sluffs. Not so hot. But we headed up anyway... After climbing almost to the top it... it finally sunk in that this was not a smart line for me to ski. Very steep and a bit too narrow for turns. Maybe 55-65 degrees in some of the more nasty bulges. So ice axe in hand and skis still on the pack I downclimbed back to the half way point. Humbled.
On with the traverse... By the time I made it to the west slope of Bloody I was done. The final 2000ft climb was not going to be fun. So I threw in the towel and just skied corn back to the road.
Naturally, Howie managed to slowly sideslip the ParaChute Couloir with axe in hand. And continued to power up Bloody Mtn and skied the Bloody Couloir back down to the car later that afternoon.

Howie dropping into the ParaChute

Looking up the ParaChute

Two more guys headed up the ParaChute

The Bloody Couloir in top notch conditions.....

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RMAG

Wow, Bloody looks awesome right now. And Parachute looks... about normal for a big year. Pretty challenging spot. It's lucky to even have the chockstones covered up. One of the two times I've been there I made turns down the steep upper half. The other time, no way!