You’re welcome, Steven, and I’m glad you signed up for Chago’s course, it’s excellent and he’ll give you a great introduction to the MCS area. There’s a horrible, breakable crust everywhere out there now that makes just skiing hazardous. But once we have better conditions, there is a low-angle, hazard-free route you can skin up and ski down: From the parking lot right at Mores Creek Summit, skin directly up the broad ridge leading from the pass to the summit of Pilot Peak. You’ll often find a skin track up it.

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Michael,

Thank you for all of the information. My partner and I are signed up to take the level 1 course in two weeks. We are currently trying to find a safe place to get out and practice skinning and maybe bury a beacon or two. Looking at nearby areas I agree with you on poor condition especially considering our lack of training.

Take care and thank you for the awesome blog.

Steven

Hi Steven,

Welcome to Boise. I ski the Mores Creek Summit/Pilot Peak area regularly, although I know the conditions and avi hazard are currently both terrible.

There’s no avalanche conditions forecast specific to the MCS area. Most backcountry skiers here check the Sawtooth Avalanche Center and Payette Avalanche Center forecasts because those are the closest and conditions around MCS are often similar or some combination or middle ground between those two areas.

The best source of information about MCS is avi instructor (and my good friend) Santiago “Chago” Rodriguez, and he used to post regular conditions reports at morescreeksummit.com. However, for quite some time he’s been too busy with his guiding and avi courses in the MCS area to update that site. I strongly recommend you take a course or guided skiing with him.

I also regularly check the Mores Creek Summit SNOTEL.

I hope that helps. Thanks for the comment. Keep in touch.

Thank you for any help you can provide,
Steven