Bloody Couloir! Almost 10 years ago this Eastern Sierra classic ski descent came on my radar driving down Hwy 395 but the timing had never been right. Not enough time, approach too melted out, too firm up high, no 4WD, etc. Our group had too many excuses. So timing and conditions be damned, it was finally time to hit this classic -- in mid-June. Bloody or Bust.

Our crew of 3 parked at the utter bottom since the 4WD road up is not for timid cars like ours. Predictably for mid-June, it was a huge dirt slog up to about 9,000 ft. Then we skinned on-and-off until the base of Bloody Couloir. The scale of the couloir was deceiving -- it was so much bigger than it looked from the base. Just skinning up the apron took 30 min and then time slowed down as we booted up like forever to the summit ridge. The wind up there was intense -- we found out later that nearby and lower Mammoth Mountain reported gusts up to 80mph that day.

After soaking in the views and post-holing around a bit, it was time. We dropped in from the summit and skied the Bloody Couloir proper (skier's left). It's rated 45 degrees so not to be taken lightly with June bulletproof survival skiing up high. Midway through in the unshaded parts we harvested some great late season corn, and then down lower the cornfields were dotted with sun cups and melted out rock pits. The walk back down was... long. But the weather was perfect. Grabbing beers and food back at the Mammoth Brewing Company we basked in the day -- a true classic.