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Plans for the 2018-19 Season
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Why Start a Ski Area In-Town?It's pretty simple - we love cross country skiing.
Like with so many other things in life - to be a great skier you need to spend a lot of time skiing, and the drive to Bogus Basin presents a serious barrier to participation in our great sport. While Bogus will continue to be the primary site for skiing, our ski area will provide people the option to ski before and after work, to get a quick breath of fresh air during the middle of the day, or to try skiing for the first time just a little closer to home. Probably the biggest beneficiaries would be local kids. The easy access would allow for after school programs to develop and grow, and decrease the barrier of getting youth up to Bogus which we know can be a difficulty for parents. To be clear - we love Bogus Basin - our group is made up of many of the same folks who have made Bogus great. Our members include several founders the Bogus Basin Nordic Center, folks who raised and gave thousands of dollars for the lights and lodge, we include former Directors, Former and Current Employees, and virtually all of us are season pass holders who plan to continue being pass holders into the future |
Soldier Hollow, Utah (site of the 2002 Olympics) relies heavily on man-made snow
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Will it work?According to NOAA, Boise gets about 20 inches of snow per year which isn't enough to run a ski area with natural snow (and we definitely get rain and warm days mixed in between snowstorms). We plan to purchase the snowmaking equipment necessary to build a 2.5 Kilometer ski trail that can withstand Boise's "mild" winter climate.
Weather data combined with estimates from the snowmaking companies suggests that we should be able to open the full loop with 18 inches of snow by December 15 (8 of the last 9 years). The average date for hitting that depth would have been November 30 |
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Long-Term VisionWe've identified a few potential locations that would work well for the project in the long term. Sites need to be accessible by the community (close), have access to water, have adequate terrain, existing parking, and ideally have a north or north-west aspect. To reach an agreement on the use of the sites that capture the majority of these criteria could potentially take several years.
One site that we have determined has great potential for starting the XC ski area in Boise is on the backside of Hillside Junior High (off the 36th Street). There is adequate terrain for XC ski trails, a generally north-facing aspect, reasonable access to water, and established parking. While the layout is likely to shift/ change this is our proposed trail layout that maximizes the terrain, utilizes adjacent trails to increase snowmaking efficiency, and utilizes existing terrain features |
