Bogus Basin will put on a pond skim event Saturday from 1-3 p.m., while Raheem-DJ will be playing music from noon to 3 p.m. (photo courtesy Idaho Statesman)

Just as a reminder, Bogus Basin reopens Friday, April 28 through Sunday this weekend, while Silver will be open Saturday-Sunday for its final weekend. Bogus will host a 100-inch party next Saturday, May 6. 

Silver is offering discounted lift tickets and free rentals. Use code SPRING23 to save $10 off a lift ticket.

Check online at both resorts for the best deals.

After a very long, consistently cold and snowy winter, all of a sudden temperatures are soaring into the high 70s to 80s in valley locations as we leave April and move into May. Everyone is ready for that, I know!

That kind of heat is going to accelerate snow melt, which has barely started in the high country. But it's likely we're going to see some flooding and high water in our creeks and rivers. And then it's time to break out the river gear and enjoy some whitewater, if you like to do that sort of thing! 

This is going to be my last forecast for the Winter of 2022-23. And what a winter it has been! 

(Courtesy Brundage Mountain Resort) 

The season kicked off with this amazing parade of snow storms in late October/early November, which allowed all of our ski resorts to open early over Thanksgiving weekend or soon thereafter. 

My first day of xc skiing was on Nov. 10 in McCall. When Brundage Mountain opened the Friday after Thanksgiving Day, we were skiing on 2 feet of new snow on top of a bottomless snow base. I was skiing on my fat Rossignol Super 7s, but the snow was so deep with that bottomless, unpacked base, I felt like I needed even fatter skis! From that day forward, I felt like it was going to be a very long and banner snow year! And it was! 

The Low pressure troughs kept circling into Idaho and the Northern Rockies from Alaska and the Northern Pacific, and those systems brought consistently cold temps and lots of snow.   

Many of Idaho's ski areas hit way over 300 inches of snow base, some reached over 400" like Lookout and Pomerelle. Bogus Basin was hitting 356" as of this weekend. That's very deep for Bogus. Many of their ski slope signs got buried in snow, they weren't tall enough! That's the first time I've seen that in 35 years of skiing at Bogus! 

One of the best parts of this ski season is that all of Idaho's ski areas and mountain ranges got hammered with snow. We all got to share in the fun. That's true West-wide! Some of my favorite memories of doing forecasts this year was waking up to see the ski area snow stakes completely buried in snow - to the point where you could not see the measuring stick. 

Tam snow stack on a 12-inch new *pow* day. 

I personally had so many great powder days, I felt sated by February. But the snow kept coming and coming! It will be a ski season to be remembered for sure. A new benchmark from which many future seasons will be measured. I hope you got your share of *pow* and fun!   

Bottom of Bogus Basin, Showcase chairlift buried in snow. (Courtesy Bogus Basin)

- Steve Stuebner, Idaho Daily Snow 

Silver Mountain  will reopen for Saturday-Sunday April 29-30 this weekend. See article in the CDA Press about Silver's ski season.    

Bogus Basin will reopen Friday-Sunday April 28-30 this weekend, and then the final day of operation will occur with the 100" party on May 6.      

Lookout Pass, Sun Valley, Brundage Mountain, Schweitzer Mountain, Tamarack Resort, Little Ski Hill, Pomerelle, Soldier Mountain, Kelly Canyon, Magic Mountain and Pebble Creek are all closed for the season. 

As we transition to the summer season in the mountains, don’t forget that every OpenSnow All-Access subscription is good for 365 days.

Summer & Fall Features

• Forecasts Anywhere on Earth
• Wildfire Smoke Forecast Maps
• Estimated Trail Conditions
• Air Quality Forecast Maps
• Hourly Lightning Forecasts
• Current & Forecast Radar
• Historical Weather
• Offline Satellite & Terrain Maps

That means you can use OpenSnow to track the freeze/thaw cycle for corn snow and peak-bagging this spring, avoid lightning and wildfire smoke this summer, escape to the desert next fall, and find every powder day next winter.

Have a great summer! 
- SS