Season passes get ‘huge’ price hike as Boise’s Bogus Basin strives to stay affordable
Skiers and snowboarders are about to pay more for season passes at Bogus Basin.
For the beloved community mountain, the trick is to avoid pricing Boise off a cliff.
In a significant year-to-year jump, an adult Winter Pass will cost $549 during Bogus’ annual season pass sale, which kicked off Friday and runs through March 9. That’s a $90 hike over $459 for a reloaded pass during last year’s promotion. A season pass requiring new media cost $479 last year, including a $20 fee for the plastic card used in lift lines.
The 2025-26 price is “a huge increase on the full winter pass,” a Facebook commenter observed when Bogus announced its sale on social media this week, “but it is what it is.”
Bogus normally sells roughly two-thirds of its season passes during the 10-day period, General Manager Brad Wilson said, which is the lowest-priced time to buy.
The spendier Winter Pass is just one of eight winter pass products. There are Night, Twilight, Midweek, Value passes and more — take your pick. And passes have up to nine price options based on age and demographic.
“We’re giving people choices,” Wilson said in a phone interview. “It’s a complex situation, but we really want to try to provide something for every family, every budget.
“I think our market understands that these price increases will mean more improvements, more necessary maintenance. ... This summer, we’re going to be remodeling the outside of the Pioneer Lodge, for instance.”
New photos required
Bogus Basin is switching to a different internal system, so all season passes will be new media. Buyers will need to visit the ticket office to take a fresh photo and receive updated passes during summer or next winter, said Susan Saad, director of community and customer relations. Prices on Bogus’ website include the new media cost, she said.
Bogus Basin strove to minimize price-bump impacts for families and young adults. “We made sure that the groups that are most susceptible to price increases had the least price increase,” Wilson said. “Young families, in particular — we want to make sure that we’re here for them.”
Lower-tier pass holders will notice the steepest price-trajectory pain: Twilight and Midweek passes. Those options have “exploded in popularity,” Bogus noted in 2023. An adult Twilight Pass, which allows skiing 3 p.m. and later, will rise from $149/$169 to $199. A Midweek — good weekdays but with blackout limitations — is increasing from $209/$229 to $279. Those are jumps of 25% and 33% from last year’s prices for a reloaded pass. (Comparing new media to new media, the increases are 18% and 22%.)
Bargain hunters might feel like they’re nudged up the price ladder toward a Value Pass, which costs the same as last year, $299 — or actually decreases if you paid the $319 new media price. It’s an appealing daily option for some, but with important restrictions.
Other options include an unlimited all-year True Bogus Pass — $599, up from $529/$549 — and the 6 p.m. Night Pass, remaining at $99 (or actually lower than $119 last year if you had to buy new media).
Preparing for avalanches of feedback, Bogus Basin unveiled a “Frequently Asked Questions” page. Queries include, “Why do season passes keep rising?” and “I thought you were a nonprofit focused on affordability; these prices are not affordable.”
Skiing, it turns out, is not a cheap hobby. Although Bogus hasn’t set prices for daily lift tickets yet, those are “highly likely” to go up next season, too, Wilson said.
“Bogus Basin remains one of the region’s most affordable season pass options,” the FAQ page explains. “... Every dollar spent is reinvested directly into the mountain. As costs for maintenance, wages, infrastructure improvements and operations increase, season pass prices must also rise.”
Bogus Basin again will reduce the number of season passes it sells overall, too, helping to alleviate traffic on peak days.
Debt-free Bogus
Most Idahoans can appreciate that Bogus Basin has kept lift-ticket costs in check for decades. The mountain rocked the industry in 1998 by drastically cutting prices and unleashing a $199 season pass. That’s where it mostly remained for years, before finally inching up to $229 in 2013.
When Wilson took over in late 2015, Bogus Basin had been on a run of tough snow years, bleeding money and $8 million in debt. One of the first things he did was green-light a $70 winter season-pass price jump — to $299.
Last spring, Bogus Basin’s volunteer board of directors voted unanimously to pay off the mountain’s remaining debt, about $4 million.
Nowadays? “We are debt-free,” Wilson said.
Keeping pace with a growing Treasure Valley, Wilson leads a year-round recreation area in perpetual transformation. Improvements that debuted this winter included replacement Coach and Bitterroot chair lifts — doubling their capacity. They’ve helped shorten lift lines across the mountain, he said.
“It’s had a bigger positive impact than we ever anticipated,” Wilson said. “We’re really happy about that.”
Enjoying “record territory” snowfall so far this winter — and visitors to match — Bogus has had an “excellent” season, he said.
But nobody’s breaking out any bubbly. Not just yet.
“We won’t know until the season pass sale is over,” Wilson said, “how well this year is going.”
This story was originally published February 28, 2025 at 4:00 AM.