Bogus Basin is a nonprofit mountain resort that offers year-round adventures, from skiing to a mountain coaster. Bogus gets its name from 19th century scams in the area involving fake gold prospecting, but there’s nothing artificial about the mountain’s popularity and impact today. Residents of Boise and the surrounding area appreciate Bogus’s accessibility; it’s a vacation destination just around the corner, only a 45-minute drive north of downtown.
Boise State students, faculty and staff are among those who frequent the mountain. Mostly, it’s for fun — Bogus offers discount passes for students, and it’s not uncommon for Boise State attendees to list “accessibility of outdoor activities” among their reasons for choosing the university. But Bogus Basin also offers career opportunities for Broncos, and Boise State has a long-standing research partnership with the mountain. It’s a symbiotic relationship, one of many ways Boise State contributes to and benefits from the larger Idaho community and economy.
Recreation
Each winter, Boise State students flock to Bogus Basin for skiing, snowshoeing, fat tire biking or even just a relaxing meal. Bogus Basin offers discounts for college students on several season passes, including the Midweek Season Pass (weekday skiing all season), the Nordic Season Pass (cross-country skiing, snowshoeing and fat tire biking) and the Night Season Pass (unlimited skiing and riding from 6 p.m. to close all season).
Bogus also offers a range of summer activities, including mountain biking, rock climbing and hiking.
Research
Boise State’s connection to Bogus Basin spans beyond outdoor fun. Faculty and students from the Department of Geosciences regularly travel to Bogus Basin to conduct fundamental research on snowpack, snow physics and the local water supply.
Professor HP Marshall estimates that 30 to 50% of his research in the last decade has been at Bogus Basin. Marshall develops and implements tools for measuring snow properties, focusing on snow strength and water supply (how much water is stored in snowpack).
Research like Marshall’s has big impacts on both the state and federal level. Marshall’s team provides the United States Army with key data points about snow physics — helping the Army determine how troops and vehicles can best move around in the snow. Working with NASA’s 2017–2023 SnowEx campaign, Marshall’s team — partnered with five other sites across the Western United States — addressed the question: How much water is stored in Earth’s snow-covered regions? These findings will be crucial in water resource management for hydropower, drinking, agriculture and flood forecasting in the United States.
On a smaller scale, Marshall’s research helps Bogus Basin prepare the mountain for skiing. Marshall’s airborne LiDAR scans — which use pulsed laser light to measure distances, in order to create detailed 3D models — provide a high-resolution, snow-free elevation model of the ski area. Marshall provides this elevation model to the Bogus Basin team. The team uses the model, along with GPS data, to send snowcats — enclosed, truck-like vehicles designed for snowy terrain — to transport snow from places where it’s thick, to places that are more bare.
“We’re trying to make our data as easy to digest as possible, and to give back in that way,” Marshall said. “I think Bogus saw a lot of value in the LiDAR data that we provided.”
James McNamara is another faculty member whose research focuses on snowpack and water. McNamara and his team oversee the Dry Creek Experimental Watershed, a network of stations across the Boise foothills that gather hydrology data. One of these weather stations is at the top of Bogus Basin. The Bogus station measures snowfall, a fundamental piece in the puzzle of Idaho hydrologic research. About 70% of Idaho’s water supply comes directly from mountain snowpack.
“Most of our precipitation comes during the winter when farmers don’t need it,” McNamara said, “and if you’ve lived here for even one summer, you know that we effectively don’t get any rain. So, understanding the seasonality of precipitation is important for managing water resources for irrigation and pretty much anything else we use water for.”
Careers
For some Broncos, Bogus Basin represents the first step in a fulfilling career. And for others, it’s the one and only place they want to work, from graduation to retirement.
A number of Boise State students and alumni work in full- and part-time roles across Bogus Basin. It’s another form of symbiosis between the university and the mountain: Bogus benefits from the strong, nearby talent pool of Boise State students, who come equipped with the knowledge necessary to succeed at a large nonprofit, while Boise State students appreciate the career opportunities that Bogus provides.
Brooke Davison is one such student. A senior business administration major who grew up in Richland, Washington, Davison balances her Boise State course load with a full-time job as Bogus Basin’s human resources coordinator. Though balancing these commitments takes discipline, Davison’s love for the outdoors makes work feel more like fun. Since starting as HR coordinator in October 2024, she’s found a strong community in her coworkers, who like to be outside just as much as she does.
“My job doesn’t feel like a job,” Davison said. “While there are stressful moments, as cheesy as it is, it feels like a family up here. I don’t have family in Boise, so it’s been nice to know there are people I can rely on. It’s nice to have people in my corner that are rooting for me.”
Davison’s role brings her into contact with employees from all over the mountain. Her primary responsibilities include managing employee uniforms and pass distribution, going through trainings with employees, and working with human resources management systems to oversee onboarding and payroll.
Davison values understanding a wide range of operations across the nonprofit, and says her classes at Boise State have helped immensely in this regard. Accounting classes help her understand the customer-facing, financial side of the business; nonprofit classes have given her a background in grant-writing.
Davison has no plans to leave her current job anytime soon. She looks forward to continuing to grow alongside the organization as it evolves.
“It’s hard to imagine leaving a place where I feel like I have the freedom and the support to grow as an employee,” Davison said. “Especially when it opens so many doors for outdoor recreation activities that I love to do.”
Elise Macdonald, a senior biology major who grew up in Sun Valley and Boise, shares a similar sentiment about her role as marketing coordinator at Bogus Basin. Macdonald began working at Bogus Basin on a seasonal, part-time basis about five years ago — at their resale shop in the winter, and with activities in the summer. In winter of 2024, she made the switch to Bogus’s marketing department.
Macdonald’s marketing coordinator role involves updating webpages and posting on social media. It’s pushed her to embrace her creative side. Inspired by her job, she decided to begin the College of Innovation and Design’s Certificate of Content Production, a Boise State career readiness program that teaches design, audiovisual storytelling and more.
“Some of the things I’ve been learning are the technical aspects of copywriting, how to film and edit promotional videos, and how to create articles and blogs,” Macdonald said. “All of those things perfectly go hand-in-hand with what I’m doing at work.”
Like Davison, Macdonald has found friendship, community and belonging at Bogus Basin. Her best memories involve going out in the snow with her coworkers on fresh powder days. She plans to stay at Bogus Basin for at least a few more years, continuing to grow, learn and build skills for her long-term career.