Bad news at Bogus Basin

Managers of the Bogus Basin Mountain Recreation Area have cut all year-round workers’ pay by 10 percent and will eliminate hours and positions as they head for the latest opening in the resort’s history.

Bogus is usually covered in snow and in full operation at this time of year. But with almost no snowfall, and very limited snowmaking, the resort is closed and has lost an estimated $2 million so far in ticket sales.

In a board meeting with all of the resort’s year-round employees Jan. 2, General Manager Mike Shirley and Chief Financial Officer Alan Moore announced they’ll both work without pay “for an extended period.”

About a half-dozen other positions among the 35 year-round jobs at Bogus will also be eliminated, Shirley said Jan. 4. Cutting back on pay and staffing and deferring other payments will save the resort $600,000 or $700,000 this year, Shirley said.

“None of us are making very much money,” he noted.

A typical ski season at Bogus usually brings in about $9 or $10 million; a good season yields $11 million in revenues. One bright spot: Bogus had strong season pass sales this year, bringing in $4 million. But Shirley noted that’s not a bright spot for the skiers who have paid to be on the mountain and can’t get there.

“It was a good season pass sale, and we’re gratified that we’ve got it, and we’re hoping for snow so we can provide a season,” he said.

The resort also carries some debt, including $4 million it borrowed to install a new high-speed quad lift last summer. And it will be borrowing more this year to maintain its equipment in ski-ready condition.

“We’ve always had a line of credit,” Shirley said. “We haven’t been into it for a while, so we’ll be going into it now.”

Bogus usually employs 700 seasonal workers to run the lifts, teach skiing and snowboarding, work in the lodges, and do the other jobs that keep the ski area operating, Shirley said. Those people are trained and ready to go, but they’re not being paid.

It’s not only Bogus that has seen nearly no snow this winter. The valley down below has also experienced an unusually mild season. The job losses at Bogus will likely be offset by the fact that the weather has been sufficiently good to allow unseasonal construction work, said Bob Fick, a spokesman at the state Department of Labor.

Bogus usually has about three feet of snow at this time of year, said Moore. Now on the base: about six inches. The resort sometimes uses its three portable snowmakers to patch areas, but it isn’t even doing that now.

The latest opening in Bogus history is Jan. 6. That happened in 1990. It appears likely Bogus will open later than that this year, as the National Weather Service 10-day forecast on Jan. 4 called for mostly cloudy skies but a low chance of precipitation.

But it’s notoriously difficult to make an accurate long-term weather forecast, Moore noted.

“It could change in a hurry,” he said.

(updates story to show previous latest opening was in 1990, not 1989)