BOISE -- Christmas break is less than a week away, and while school kids are excited, leaders at Bogus Basin are getting anxious, wondering if they will get enough snow to open in time.
"What we're hoping for is to be open this weekend," said Alan Moore, President and General Manager of Bogus Basin.
As of Monday afternoon, there was about nine to 11 inches of snow at the base of Bogus Basin. That's still not enough to open.
"If we got three, four, five inches, somewhere in that range of good packable snow, we could get something open," said Moore.
Opening day for Bogus has varied considerably over the last four years.
They had one of their earliest openings in 2010, which was on Thanksgiving Day. But the next season, Bogus had one of its latest openings ever on January 19th, followed by a December 21 opening in 2012, and December 8 in 2013.
Moore says the goal every year is to be open in time for Christmas break. The two weeks can account for 25 to 30 percent of total lift revenue for the year.
"If we're not open during the Christmas break, those are big dollar days for Bogus and it's something that we really hope to have," said Moore.
Despite the recent tough years, Moore says Bogus is doing fine financially, even being able to pay down debt over the last few years.
However, some things have been put on hold.
"We aren't doing things like buying new snow cats. A snow cat is a quarter million dollars, and it's about time to buy another snow cat. There's some maintenance that we'd like to do, but overall, those are things that we can defer for awhile," said Moore.
Moore says recent mild winters have also led to a drop in skiers. The yearly average was down about 100,000 people in the last few years.
"What that means, is that we'll just have to run a little slimmer and keep costs under control as opposed to making significant improvements to the mountain. We'll just have to control our spending for awhile," said Moore.
Moore says Mother Nature hasn't always been bad to Bogus. Just last year, a late snowfall allowed them to extend their season twice. They didn't close until April 13.
