Idaho’s Bogus Basin Mountain Recreation Area is closing early on Sunday, March 22, after one of the warmest winters on record. The high temperatures are hindering the resort’s experimental snow blanket program it rolled out a year ago.
Last April, the resort made a pile of snow and covered it under a giant insulated blanket. The technology from Finland preserved the snow over the summer. Bogus bought more of the blankets to expand their snow storage for this upcoming winter.
But Austin Smith, Bogus Basin’s director of innovation, said temperatures have been unusually high this season.
“It’s not usual to see consecutive 60 degree days while we're still operating and kind of paying attention to melt rate,” said Smith.
He said there’s not enough natural snow this year to save as much as they planned for.
“The situation with Snow Secure is that obviously it's not designed to be completely done on machine-made snow … And it's no secret that this season has been lackluster in terms of natural snowfall,” said Smith.
So the project had to scale back this season.
“We worked out a deal with Snow Secure to, I guess, sell back or not purchase … one whole system and a handful of additional panels of a system,” said Smith.
Those blanket systems are going to other ski resorts.
Smith said the storage project is still happening, but the piles will be smaller. For now, they will scrape together snow that’s still on the ground because mountain temperatures are too warm to use snowmaking machines.
