Bogus Basin had more than 400,000 visits from skiers this year, not as many as the banner year last year, but still pretty good considering it didn't snow much early in the season.
Our non-profit ski area was able to open on Thanksgiving weekend because of their investment in snow-making, but mother nature didn't really cooperate until after the calendar rolled in 2024.
However, skiers and snowboarders were able to enjoy a long season and this weekend Bogus Basin will host a bonus weekend and one of their most popular events the pond skim. Crews were building the pond when we went up to the mountain on Thursday.
"We had to stack quite a bit of snow to make a flat spot on the mountain for a pond," said Nate Shake, the director of mountain operations at Bogus Basin. "We started yesterday, we will finish it off today with probably another full day and put water in it tomorrow."
The pond skim starts at 1:00 p.m. However, this has become such a huge event that if you want to participate you will need to be open at Bogus Basin around the time the mountain opens at 9:00 a.m.
"It’s a blast, there are a lot of crazy costumes, crazy antics and it’s always exciting to see somebody not make it across," said Shake. "It’s just a great way to celebrate a great season."
New lifts highlighted our news coverage of ski season as Bogus Basin announced they will replace the Coach lift and the Bitterroot Lift ahead of next season. Bogus will raffle off two of the Bitterroot Chairs during the pond skim, tickets cost $20.
Brundage Mountain Resort will have its final weekend of the season. They debuted a new lift as they replaced the Centennial Triple with a new high-speed quad called the Centennial Express.
Sun Valley Resort will have their last weekend on the Warm Springs side where they installed the new Flying Squirrel Lift and replaced the Challenger lift with a six-person lift where people can get off halfway up the mountain.
Other highlights from this season included a cat skiing adventure at Soldier Mountain, the U.S. Alpine National Championships at Sun Valley, and the Dotty Clark at Bogus Basin.
