Bloody Mountain 12,552′
Sierra Nevada
Total Time: ~8:00
Distance: 8.7 miles
Elevation Gain: 4650′
Crux: Class 2
Trailhead: Laurel Creek Road, 4WD, no services
Companions: Holly
Bloody Mountain is another peak that I let sit on my short list for a long time. It’s one of the easier SPS peaks in the Eastern Sierra, only about 5 miles roundtrip with ~2,500′ of elevation gain. It also makes up the southern skyline of Mammoth Lakes, and I’ve stared up at it from town more times than I can count. More than anything, it’s the rough 4WD road to the trailhead that had been holding me back. But I was due for another set of tires and was planning on replacing them anyways, so it seemed like a good time to roll the dice on the road into Laurel Lakes to attempt the 12,552′ summit. I was glad for the early start when my Subaru Forester made it in only about a mile to 8,000′, turning our 5 mile day into 11. But, it was early and really all we had planned, so we started up the rough road, the rocky road improving a few switchbacks from where I stopped.
Only a few vehicles passed us as we hiked along the road, mostly ATVs and dirtbikes and the occasional lifted truck heading out. Hiking slightly above Laurel Creek, the road flattened as it wove through aspens, with Bloody Mountain and the famous Bloody Couloir route looming straight ahead.
It took us about 2 hours to cover the 3.7 miles to reach the formal trailhead to Edith Lake and the saddle between Laurel and Bloody Mountains, with a car that could have given us a lift arriving just as we did. Oh well…
We started up the trail, now single track as it switched up more aggressively above the road, the views of the Laurel Creek drainage improving with the small lakes in the canyon below. The trail entered a high basin, likely filled with water and snow early in the season but bone dry despite the patches of snow higher on the ridgeline.
Above the basin, several hundred more feet of switchbacks brought us to the saddle between Laurel and Bloody, and our easy hiking had officially come to an end. We took a break here, with glimpses of Mount Morrison and White Fang to the south. The ridgeline from the saddle looked initially loose and unpleasant, and I hoped to find a use trail to make the going a bit easier.
While we did pick up a faint trail through the talus, it made the ascent no less loose. The worst of it only lasted for about 200′ until we reached the more solid northeastern ridgeline of Bloody Mountain from the saddle. We paused here to let another climber pass us, Mike from Reno and the only other climber on the mountain that day. He had done over 100 of the SPS peaks so far, with the majority between Rock Creek and Tahoe. He was acclimated and moving much faster so we let him pass before continuing along the ridgeline, mercifully less steep and loose with better views of the Mount Morrison group and Red Slate Mountain to the south.
There were a handful of false summits en route, and the use trail would often skirt them to the south to avoid the unnecessary elevation gain. Still, it was about 1,700′ of elevation gain from the saddle to the summit in under two miles, so the going was slow. There was another steep and loose push several hundred feet below the summit near the top of a snow filled couloir, and the trail became a bit more scramble-y before we resume our talus plod.
Although we weren’t that much slower than Mike, it still ultimately took over two hours and a handful of false summits to top out on the high point. He had waited for us at the top, and we enjoyed some summit beers and shared our snacks while we took in the fantastic views across Mammoth Lakes, the Ritter Range, some of the high summits in eastern Yosemite and the large peaks in the Rock Creek drainage.
He was kind enough to offer us a lift back down to our car despite our slower pace, and the three of us descended together, talking SPS, Caltopo, the JMT and all things Sierra. We reached the steep part of the ridgeline above the saddle and plunge stepped down the loose talus, dropping 1700′ from the summit to the saddle in only an hour.
Back on trail, we quickly hiked the switchbacks to Mike’s truck, better equipped for the rought road. As we all climbed in, I was thankful to be saved the extra 3.7 miles of hiking, if for no other reason than I was hungry for dinner….
He got us back to our car shortly before 5, and we thanked him with a beer from our cooler, tailgating partway up the road before parting ways for dinner at Convict Lake.