Community commits funding for Bogus Basin construction

Bogus Basin Mountain Recreation Area continues to add summer attractions as it transforms itself into a year-round destination.

Since April 2017, the resort has raised more than $6.2 million to bridge the estimated gap toward its projected $20 million, 10-year master plan to substantially upgrade Boise’s ski area.

Bogus Basin anticipates $14 million in increased revenue over the next 10 years, primary for increased snowmaking, replacing a ski lift and remodeling the lodges, General Manager Brad Wilson said.

The $6 million Bogus Basin Project campaign last year was a benchmark, but the recreation area would like to add to that, said Susan Saad, Bogus Basin’s director of community and customer relations.

A “transformational lead gift,” of an undisclosed amount from the J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Family Foundation was bolstered by other large gifts from Blue Cross of Idaho Foundation for Health, The J.R. Simplot Company, AgriBeef, Albertsons, Gardner Company, Midas Gold, Micron Foundation, Little Family Foundation and the Harry W. Morrison Foundation, Saad said.  The campaign has also received more than $412,000 from the general community since April 2017.

Bogus Basin spent $4.6 million last summer to upgrade the recreation area into a year-round revenue generator for the nonprofit ski operation. The $3 million Glade Runner mountain coaster, which opened to the public Dec. 22, is the big ticket year-round attraction but, the cost is “less than a chairlift,” said Kendra Witt-Doyle, executive director at the Blue Cross foundation. “That’s an important note to make.”

Some 20,000 people have taken the 4,300-foot, gravity-driven coaster that zips through the forest just outside the Simplot Lodge. One ride costs $15 for one or $25 for two people together.

New last summer: trampolines and bungee jumping, summer tubing, gold panning, a 1-acre lawn and three new conveyor lifts – “magic carpets” – in the summer recreation area, a site for beginning skiers and for tubing in the winter. That area had only one conveyor lift a year ago.

Bogus Basin also built the 12,000-square-foot Bogus Creek Plaza, outside the Simplot Lodge last year. Approximately 200 people can relax outside enjoying the heated pavers and fire pits in the winter and cooler temperatures than on the valley floor in the summer. Simplot had no patio before.

“That takes the pressure off indoor seating,” Wilson noted.  “The plaza immediately has become a gathering place to be enjoyed all year.”

The Double R Ranch BBQ Smokehouse, a full-service food and beverage outlet on the plaza, opened in early March.

Bogus Basin is taking its 75th anniversary year to upgrade the area for the future.

“It is making sure we are financially sound to be around for the next 75 years,” Wilson said. “We are taking 100 percent reliance (on snowfall) out of the question and making ourselves more of a year-round mountain recreation area.”

Bogus Basin presently has only four snowmaking machines covering only 4 percent of the ski slopes, nearly all of it in the beginner ski area.

“We can make snow on a couple trails, very slowly,” Wilson said.

Potentially within the next two or three years, Wilson wants to have 30 snow making machines able to blanket 62.5 percent on the front side of the mountain. This can cover from top to bottom three slopes on the Deer Point lift, two slopes on the Morningstar lift and the beginner area, he said.

Bogus Basin struck a bonanza with more than two feet of snow in early March.

“Once snowmaking is in place, we will be able to assure our early mid-December opening, something that is so important to our survival,” said Wilson.