Regarding the Parachute route I've found the best alternative to combine the 2. Cut right from the summit until you can get down to the scree. Bomb down good scree for a couple hundred meters then cut left to join back onto Halls fell. This way you cut out the more technical section at the top of Halls fell and miss out the steep ground at the bottom of the Parachute. I raced a friend down from the summit. Me on Halls fell and him on the Parachute variation. He beat me by about 10 mins. Normally we are pretty even on the descents. The only thing is you've got to take the correct line back to Halls from the scree otherwise you end up having to backtrack