OK, procrastinators, you just got a reprieve.
Bogus Basin extended its season pass sale four days, giving skiers and snowboarders more time to purchase next winter's pass for $229, its lowest price of the year. The sale, originally scheduled to end Sunday, now won't conclude till Thursday.
Thank the weather gods - or whoever you believe sent the recent snowstorms.
"Snow changes everything at Bogus," general manager Alan Moore said. "We just wanted to make sure that no one is left out that would have bought a pass with the changed conditions."
When the sale started on Feb. 18, the Boise-area ski resort had just 35 inches of snow at its base. Lackluster snowfall and the first price increase in 15 years limited pass sales to 60 percent of normal on the first day, Moore said.
But beginning last Thursday, a series of snowstorms lifted sales. Bogus Basin sold about $900,000 worth of season passes Sunday, nearing a record for final-day sales.
"As we saw the snow go up, we saw the season pass sales go up," Moore said.
Still, sales were about 80 percent of the 10-year average.
Prices will go up each week after Thursday, with individual season passes costing $259 at first.
For the past 15 years, Bogus Basin had sold the pass for $199. Last year, it offered $20 off that price for returning buyers because of a late opening caused by a weak winter.
Season pass sales bring in about half of the resort's annual budget, and between 80 and 90 percent of season passes are sold in February, Moore said.
Despite opening in December - nearly a month before the resort was able to operate last winter - Bogus has had a difficult season financially. It opened with minimal snowpack and had only a few storms to add to its base.
Moore said Bogus is at roughly 85 percent of its normal visitors total. And skiers and boarders have spent less this winter because a larger-than-usual portion had season passes and didn't need lift tickets, he said.
That makes this the second consecutive below-average season at the resort.
"We're in the same financial position that we were in last year," Moore said. "We've been running awfully lean here at Bogus Basin."
He pointed out that it shouldn't take a huge snow year to bounce back financially.
"We do very well with average (snowfall)," Moore said.
Roger Phillips: 377-6215, Twitter: @rogeroutdoors
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