Bogus Basin Mountain Recreation Area is a

ski area A ski area is the terrain and supporting infrastructure where skiing and other snow sports take place. Such sports include alpine and cross-country skiing, snow boarding, tubing, sledding, etc. Ski areas may stand alone or be part of a ski resort. ...

in the

western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, located in

Boise County, Idaho Boise County is a rural mountain County (United States), county in the U.S. state of Idaho. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 7,610. The county seat is historic Idaho City, Idaho, Idaho City, which is connected through a s ...

, north-northeast of the city of

Boise Boise ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho. As of the 2020 census, there were 235,685 people residing in the city. Located on the Boise River in southwestern Idaho, it is east of the Oregon border and nor ...

. Bogus is operated by the Bogus Basin Recreation Association, a

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

organization, on private and leased land in the

Boise National Forest Boise National Forest is a United States National Forest, National Forest covering of the U.S. state of Idaho. Created on July 1, 1908, from part of Sawtooth National Forest, it is managed by the United States Forest Service, U.S. Forest Se ...

. Ski season generally runs from

Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in October and November in the United States, Canada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Germany. It is also observed in the Australian territory ...

weekend until the weekend preceding April 15, depending on snow conditions. The area also has

cross-country skiing Cross-country skiing is a form of skiing whereby skiers traverse snow-covered terrain without use of ski lifts or other assistance. Cross-country skiing is widely practiced as a sport and recreational activity; however, some still use it as a m ...

on of Nordic trails.

History

The area probably got its name during the 19th-century gold rush. Crooks in the hills above Boise City, known as "spelterers", would make bogus gold dust by heating lead filings with a bit of real gold dust. Alf Engen, the father of the American powder technique, selected the site for the ski area at Bogus Basin in 1939. It opened to the public in December 1942 with a

rope tow A surface lift is a type of cable transport for mountain sports in which skiers, snowboarders, or mountain bikers remain on the ground as they are pulled uphill. While they were once prevalent, they have been overtaken in popularity by higher ...

, and a T-bar was installed in 1946."Building Bogus Basin," by Eve Brassey Chandler, Donning Co., 2009, In the early 1950s, Bogus had a 30-meter Nordic

ski jump Ski jumping is a winter sport in which competitors aim to achieve the farthest jump after sliding down on their skis from a specially designed curved ramp. Along with jump length, competitor's aerial style and other factors also affect the fin ...

, designed by Corey Engen, and his brother Sverre was Bogus' ski instructor. The first

chairlift An elevated passenger ropeway, or chairlift, is a type of aerial lift, which consists of a continuously circulating steel wire rope loop strung between two end terminals and usually over intermediate towers. They are the primary on-hill tran ...

at Bogus was installed in the fall of 1959 at Deer Point, and night skiing debuted in December 1964. The resort currently operates 7 chairlifts and 4 magic carpets. Four of the chairlifts are high-speed quads (#1 ''Deer Point'', and #6 ''Pine Creek'') were installed in 1996 and 1999, #3 ''Superior'' in 2011, and #2 ''Morning Star'' in 2019. Bogus Basin has of mixed runs, bowls, and glades, with groomed. The lift-served vertical drop is on the east-facing "back side," with a summit

elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...

of above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

at the top of Shafer Butte, the highest point of the Boise Ridge mountains. This back side of Shafer Butte was opened in January 1977, following the installation of Pine Creek (#6), a double chairlift, the previous summer. A fixed-grip double for 23 seasons, it became a high-speed quad in the summer of 1999. On the front side, Bogus Basin's southern lift-served summit is at "Doe Point," adjacent to Deer Point, which is slightly higher and covered with communications towers at an elevation of . Both vantage points overlook

and the entire

Treasure Valley The Treasure Valley is a valley in the western United States, primarily in southwestern Idaho, where the Payette, Boise, Weiser, Malheur, and Owyhee rivers drain into the Snake River. It includes all the lowland areas from Vale in rural east ...

, over below. Bogus' base area and main day lodge ( J. R. Simplot Lodge, formerly ''Bogus Creek'') are at , at the base of the north-facing slopes served by the Deer Point Express (#1), a high-speed quad installed in the summer of 1996. The original double chairlift on #1 was installed in 1959 and upgraded in 1981. Showcase (#4), a double chairlift that had replaced a surface poma lift in 1972, is east of and parallel with the Deer Point Express. The original Deer Point lift was relocated and renamed Coach (#7) in 1996, servicing the beginner learning area. It honors Bill "Coach" Everts, an early area manager (1953–58) and longtime director. At mid-mountain, a second day lodge (''Pioneer Lodge'' - 1973) sits at with a sizable parking lot, a cluster of condominia (1975), and the Jason Harper Training Center. From the Pioneer area, there is direct access to the gentle south-facing slopes served by a high-speed quad chairlift, Morning Star (#2) and the north-facing slopes of the Bitterroot (#5), a quad chair lift (vertical: ), which runs only on weekends and holidays. In addition, there is connecting trail access to the base of the Superior Express (#3) lift. With its vertical rise, the Superior Express serves the advanced and expert terrain on the northern face of Shafer Butte, unloading at . It replaced a

Riblet The Riblet Tramway Company of Spokane, Washington, which operated from 1908 to 2003, was once the largest ski chairlift manufacturer in the world. History The company was founded by Byron Christian Riblet, who was born in Osage, Iowa, in 1865 ...

double chairlift built in 1965, and cut the ride time of the original lift in half.

Night skiing Night skiing is the sport of skiing or snowboarding after sundown, offered at many ski areas. There are floodlights – with metal halide, LED or magnetic induction lamps – along the piste which allow for better visibility. The night ski ...

was added to the Superior area with the installation of lights in the summer of 1986, and Morning Star was converted from a double to a triple chairlift in 1999. Historically, Bogus Basin's average annual

snowfall Snow consists of individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water througho ...

is , but since 2011, the snowfall has been well below average. Due to limited

water resources Water resources are natural resources of water that are potentially useful for humans, for example as a source of drinking water supply or irrigation water. These resources can be either Fresh water, freshwater from natural sources, or water produ ...

, there is no significant snow making, only small portable units for patching.

is available on on runs served by five of the chairlifts (none on #5 or #6). Three

terrain park A terrain park or snow park is an outdoor recreation area containing terrain that allows skiers, snowboarders and snowbikers to perform tricks. Terrain parks have their roots in skateparks and many of the features are common to both. From th ...

s are also available; two on the Deer Point mountain, one for advanced, the other for beginner to intermediate skill levels. The Sunshine Park is located on the Morning Star side of the mountain. The main day lodge at Bogus Creek was built in 1962 and expanded in 1991; its ground floor contains the ticket office and ski lockers. In 2002 it was named for agribusiness magnate J. R. Simplot (1909–2008), because without him there might not be a Bogus Basin. When the fledgling ski area was struggling to pay its debts in 1953, Simplot bought its ski lifts and other mountain improvements from the Kingcliffe Co. and leased them back to the Bogus Basin Recreational Association for $1,500 per year for ten years. His intervention averted almost certain financial demise and won the everlasting gratitude of a generation of skiers. Simplot was later the driving force behind

Brundage Mountain Brundage Mountain Resort is an alpine ski area in the western United States, located in west central Idaho in the Payette National Forest. Brundage first opened in November 1961 and is northwest of McCall, a twenty-minute drive in average wi ...

northwest of McCall, which opened in November 1961.

Chairlifts

* Bogus Basin has 7 chairlifts, and 4

magic carpet A magic carpet, also called a flying carpet, is a legendary carpet and common trope in fantasy fiction. It is typically used as a form of transportation and can quickly or instantaneously carry its user(s) to their destination. In literature On ...

s. * As of 2024-25 ski season, Coach and Bitterroot chairlifts have been replaced by newly built Fixed-grip Skytrac lifts. Their predecessors (1981 Yan lift and 1973 Riblet lift) have been removed and their lift paths have been relocated to a higher vertical. Concept graphics are available o
bogusbasin.org
as well as specific information.

Other activities

The GoldRush Tubing Hill opened in the fall of 2003, constructed just west of the main parking lot for about $100,000. Annual revenues from the hill were expected to be four to five times that figure; revenues for its fourth season (2006–07) were just under $140,000. The Glade Runner is a year-round operating mountain coaster that opened in November 2017. The base station was constructed a few yards from the J. R. Simplot Lodge, and the mountain coaster features of track. Other summer activities are available at Bogus, including

climbing Climbing is the activity of using one's hands, feet, or other parts of the body to ascend a steep topographical object that can range from the world's tallest mountains (e.g. the eight thousanders) to small boulders. Climbing is done for locom ...

, tubing,

hiking A hike is a long, vigorous walk, usually on trails or footpaths in the countryside. Walking for pleasure developed in Europe during the eighteenth century. Long hikes as part of a religious pilgrimage have existed for a much longer time. "Hi ...

mountain biking Mountain biking (MTB) is a sport of riding bicycles off-road, often over rough terrain, usually using specially designed mountain bikes. Mountain bikes share similarities with other bikes but incorporate features designed to enhance durability ...

, and a disc golf course. The disc golf course opened in July 2005, centered at the mid-mountain Pioneer Lodge; the upper area of chair 5 ''(Bitterroot)'' hosts the north nine, and the south nine is on the upper area of chair 2 ''(Morning Star)''.

Bogus Basin Road

Bogus is accessed by Bogus Basin Road (an extension of Harrison Boulevard), which twists from the

city limits to the resort, only NNE

as the crow flies The expression ''as the crow flies'' is an idiom for the most direct path between two points. Etymology The meaning of the expression is attested from the early 19th century, and appeared in the Charles Dickens novel ''Oliver Twist'' (1838): ...

. The two-lane road turns 172 times and gains in elevation as the

terrain Terrain (), alternatively relief or topographical relief, is the dimension and shape of a given surface of land. In physical geography, terrain is the lay of the land. This is usually expressed in terms of the elevation, slope, and orientati ...

changes from dry

sagebrush Sagebrush is the common name of several woody and herbaceous species of plants in the genus ''Artemisia (plant), Artemisia''. The best-known sagebrush is the shrub ''Artemisia tridentata''. Sagebrush is native to the western half of North Amer ...

foothills to snow-laden mountain

forest A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense ecological community, community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, ...

. Originally a

gravel road A gravel road is a type of unpaved road surfaced with gravel that has been brought to the site from a quarry or stream bed. Gravel roads are common in less-developed nations, and also in the rural areas of developed nations such as Canada and ...

constructed by CCC crews (funded by the WPA) from 1938 to 1940, Bogus Basin Road was first paved in 1962, widened in 1974, and improved in 1998. Before its paving, it was a one-way road in ski season, with the direction changed to downhill in the early afternoon.

Season passes

In March 1998, Bogus' general manager Mike Shirley reduced the cost of an adult season pass from $500 to $199, lowering the

break-even Break-even (or break even), often abbreviated as B/E in finance (sometimes called point of equilibrium), is the point of balance making neither a Profit (economics), profit nor a loss. It involves a situation when a business makes just enough reve ...

point to just seven visits (and kids' season passes fell to just $29). Bogus Basin sold nearly nine times as many passes for the 1998–99 season versus the previous year, halting the pass sales at 25,000 (2,854 for the 1997–98 season). The new pricing strategy generated almost four times as much revenue (nearly $3.6 million) from season pass sales, all before June, six months before the season would begin. Total skier visits went from under 192,000 to over 303,000 (up 58%). Although the sales of day tickets ($31 each) expectedly fell (almost 50%), Bogus' total revenue increased by $2.6 million (up 55%) to $7.3 million for the 1998-99 ski season. Shirley's deep-discount strategy was effective: resorts from coast to coast lowered their prices for multi-day, multi-area, and season passes. Locally, ski equipment sales increased significantly as skiers upgraded their gear. The $199 price was in effect for fifteen years, until raised to $229 for the 2013–14 season. Seniors (age 70 and over) skied for free at Bogus through March 2015; the policy was changed that summer. For the 2015–16 season, season passes for seniors were priced at $199 and one-day lift tickets at $44, a discount of ten dollars off the regular daily rate.

United States Ski Team

Members of the U.S. Ski Team from Bogus Basin include: * Jeret Peterson – (1981–2011), freestyle aerials, 2005 World Cup champion, 2010 Olympic silver medalist * Dane Spencer – (b. 1977) –

giant slalom Giant slalom (GS) is an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding competitive discipline. It involves racing between sets of poles ("gates") spaced at a greater distance from each other than in Slalom skiing, slalom but less than in Super-G. Giant sl ...

– currently a World Cup assistant coach with the U.S. Ski Team * Erik Fisher – (b. 1985) – downhill * Sandy Shellworth – (b. 1944) – 1968 Olympian, 21st in women's downhill, 1967 U.S. champion in giant slalom. * Walt Falk – (b. 1947) – competed in downhill at 1966 World Championships * Sara Studebaker – (b. 1984) –

biathlon The biathlon is a winter sport that combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. It is treated as a race, with contestants skiing through a cross-country trail whose distance is divided into shooting rounds. The shooting rounds are not ti ...

, 2010 & 2014 Olympian, 7th in 2014 women's team relay

General managers

After 21 seasons, Mike Shirley announced in February 2012 that he was stepping down as general manager and president, and was succeeded by Alan Moore, the former vice president of finance.
Idaho Statesman
' - Mike Shirley to retire as Bogus Basin president at end of ski season - February 16, 2012 Shirley was a former vice president with Morrison-Knudsen Co. and initially hired as an interim manager after the resignation of Terry Lofsvold in November 1991. After the search committee determined he was the best candidate, he was hired in April, the first general manager at Bogus with an extensive background in finance. Moore stepped down in 2015 and was succeeded in November by Brad Wilson, formerly the general manager at Diamond Peak,

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

, at northeast

Lake Tahoe Lake Tahoe (; Washo language, Washo: ''dáʔaw'') is a Fresh water, freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada of the Western United States, straddling the border between California and Nevada. Lying at above sea level, Lake Tahoe is the largest a ...

. : :^ ''unpaid volunteer''