What a season it has been so far! We welcomed 2024 with tons of New Year’s activities in a glowing display of community, fresh snowfall, and a whole lot of fun! We want to take a brief moment to look back at the wild ride we have had over the last 12+ months and all the fun we had.
2024 – A Glowing Welcome
Tour de Bogus – Ski 360
Every New Year’s Day, we host several activities like a FREE Ski 360 game, which encourages participants to ride every chairlift around the mountain and take their best selfies with the game banners placed in scenic spots around the mountain. Upon completion of the Ski 360, participants received a free Bogus Basin tote bag this year. We loved seeing all of your photos from the 2024 Ski 360 Challenge!
Photo provided by guest Brian Merz
Thanks Sponsors for Free Cookies & Cocoa
For the 6th year, Albertsons, a Black Diamond Bogus Basin sponsor, graciously donated gift cards and festive refreshments for our guests to enjoy on New Year’s Day. In total, Bogus Basin staff and volunteers served guests 85 dozen donated cookies and 600 cups of hot chocolate.
To add to the New Year’s fun and activities, DJ Matt Phipps played tunes in the base area from 3:30 pm to 7:30 pm.
- CookiesHanded Out
- 1,000
- Cups of HotChocolate
- 600
- Attendees
- 3,222
Torchlight Parade & Fireworks Show
We capped off the New Year’s activities with an extraordinary torchlight parade immediately followed by a beautiful mountain fireworks show. This year was one of the biggest parades to date, with 60+ participants and 6 snow cats illuminating Upper and Lower Ridge runs. We’d like to extend a special thank you to all parade participants and Lantis Fireworks for a spectacular show!
Gallery By Cassidy Carter
Capital Successes & What’s To Come
From a fun New Year’s Day celebration to 4″ of fresh snow on January 4th, adding in a favorable forecast for more snow in early January and 2024 is off to a bright start! Maintenance crews have already put our 2023 capital investments to great use, ensuring the best riding conditions we can offer this season.
Last season, we purchased the strongest snowcat on the market, the PistenBully 600, which is equipped with SNOWsat technology. That investment has paid off allowing us to map out and manage the thinner areas around the mountain. In response to the low snowpack early this season, our maintenance team is currently demoing a PistenBully Snow Dump Bucket, aka “Big Bird” to help move snow from deeper areas to areas with less than optimal coverage. A purchase may be made in the future!
More To Come In 2024
As we look towards the end of the 2023/24 season and this coming summer, your local non-profit has some big things in store… Rumor has it that Bogus Basin has some lift upgrades planned despite a slower start to the season and potentially less winter revenue.
Tackling these potential capital investments on the heels of what could be a season full of missed budgets is a core function of operating a non-profit recreation area. Our 501(c)(3) not-for-profit status requires that all revenue be reinvested back into the mountain, prohibiting the outflow of profits from the community to shareholders or ownership groups.
Bogus Basin’s non-profit status protects the future of mountain recreation for Treasure Valley locals – By definition, it’s “Non-Profit. All Good!”
2023 – Year in review
2023 was full of massive achievements, deep powder, mountain firsts, and an all-around successful year at your favorite not-for-profit mountain. We rang in the 2023 New Year like usual, together, under the firework-lit night sky with our loving community.
We knew the 80th anniversary season would be special, but we didn’t expect to stay open for our longest season in history, operating through May 6th, 2023, thanks to record-breaking snowfall.
A variety of capital improvements were introduced to the mountain in 2023, including the Mineshaft Challenge Course, which opened for summer operations in 2023. The Basin Gravity Park added an entirely new 7-trail zone, 40 Acres of Freedom, to the lift-served bike park and two trails to the existing Morning Star Zone.
We experience the highest version of ourselves above the cityscape in the mountains. Bogus Basin is a community gathering point that means so much to many. In the Fall of 2023, we unveiled From The Top”, a mural by local artist group Sector Seventeen designed to capture the feeling of being in the mountains.
Impacting The Valley – A Snapshot Of Winter 2023/24
Weather-wise, the 2023/24 season has had a slow start from Mother Nature, but your mountain teams have been working tirelessly to provide the winter experience you and your families crave. Like many years in recent history, Bogus Basin was yet again the first mountain to open in Idaho and continues to offer one of the best on-snow products in the region. For the first time in our 81 years of operations, we opened the mountain on 100% machine-made snow. The community embraced the opportunity – racking up some serious numbers in the early months of the 2023/24 winter season!
- Lift RidesThus Far
- 483k
- Nordic Visits Thus Far
- 2.5K
- Park LapsThus Far
- 43.7K
- VisitsThus Far
- 79.2K
- Night LapsThus Far
- 59.8K
- Alpine VisitsThus Far
- 67.7K
December Wrapped
For those who rejoice at the annual reveal of their most played tracks on Spotify, we recently shared Your Mountain: December 2023 Wrapped – a recap of December summative conditions, notable events, most-rode lifts, and more!
The Season Of The Snowmaker
Everybody loves an underdog victory story! Bogus Basin has proven that it has what it takes to get the job done, even when Mother Nature isn’t offering up any favors. Having installed Idaho’s 2nd largest snowmaking system in 2018, your local not-for-profit ski resort has time and time again exceeded expectations. While we have had several snowmaking assisted openings, we put our Ferrari to the test this year. Our Snow Sorcerers (aka our snowmaking crew) have been nothing shy of heroes, pumping insane amounts of water uphill and using their wizardry to convert it to snow with the help of our 50 mobile snowmaking machines. The crew shattered records in December and magically turning over 19,000,000 gallons of water into snow to keep you sliding at your favorite hangout!
Take a Dive into the Deep End of the Pond
First To Open In Idaho
To kick off Bogus Basin’s 81st season, we hosted Lowtide, making the most out of The Great Bogus Basin Snow Patch. True to its name, Lowtide was made possible exclusively thanks to our snowmaking team. All of the Treasure Valley’s park riders were more than happy to dust off their gear and slide some metal!
Following Lowtide, Coach chairlift opened and shortly after Deer Point & Morning Star Express Chairlifts turned on – Offering more terrain for eager guests to enjoy.
Catch Up on All Our Early Season Recaps
Embracing The Arts
During summer of 2023 we recruited local muralists ELMS ONE and Mawk One from Sector Seventeen to bring color to the Base Area.
“Our design aims to visually represent some of the best feelings found on the mountain. The vibrant palette is a nod to all the seasons, as well as the diverse community Bogus welcomes” – Sector Seventeen
The From the Top Mural is an inclusive, all-encompassing mural that adds to the spirit of the Bogus Basin community.
Summer Brush Cutting
Last summer, Bogus Basin and Idaho Department of Lands crews executed a massive brush-cutting initiative to reduce obstacles, wildfire danger, and the spread of invasive plant species. This brush-cutting effort took place on over 20 runs and has proven especially helpful in expanding terrain, given the low snowpack.
Learn More About Brush Cutting & Forest Management
Longest Season Ever
Everyone loves bottomless pow and never summer… well at least the snow junkies do!
The 2022/23 80th anniversary season was definitely one for the books – Bogus Basin received its 4th largest seasonal snowfall of 394″ and to the Treasure Valley’s excitement, kept the lifts spinning later than any season in its 80-year history. We finished off the historic season with an aMAYzing 100″ Party on Saturday, May 6th! Though our 81st season is off to a slower start, we are hopeful for that type of snowfall this January and February, and above all else, thankful for our 2018 snowmaking investment.
