give or take 3
Lessons section
The people and the program are the strong part. The Instructors page names 32 people with years on snow (3 to 47 where stated) and PSIA/AASI levels, which none of the four peer lesson pages we fetched do. The program ladder is complete: Mogul Mouse at ages 4-6 through Mountain Masters at 18+, plus private, semi-private, Nordic, school and homeschool groups. Policies are stated in plain words on every priced page, and the Pre-Arrival page covers what to wear, where to check in, and how rentals work. The type, palette and photography are unmistakably Bogus, and nothing overflows at 390 px.
The weak part is the path from "my kid wants to try skiing" to a booked lesson. The hub and Alpine pages show 0 dollar amounts. A link in the lesson menu on every section page (Backside Bashers) is a 404. Private alpine lessons have no reserve button, no phone and no shop link. Nordic books by phone or email. Three phone numbers appear. Lighthouse on a simulated phone gives 28 to 33 out of 100 for speed, with the first screen painting in 7 to 25 seconds, and about two-thirds of a 4.2 MB page is third-party code and an Instagram feed. None of this needs a redesign.
Scorecard
Weights set for a nonprofit lessons section, each row cites AUDIT-DATA.md
| Dimension | Weight | Score | Weighted | Measured from | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conversion path | 25% | 30 | 7.50 | AD 3, 10b, 10c: 0 forms on 10 pages; 0 '$' on hub, Alpine, Nordic; shop links on 4 of 11 pages; Private Alpine has no CTA/phone/shop link; Backside Bashers link is a 404 on 12 of 14 section pages checked pages; 3 phone numbers; 2 Nordic tel: links dial a different number than shown; GET STARTED x9. Credit: Mogul Mouse and daily group deep-link to the shop; Mogul Mouse page has Book Online + phone + schedule + price. | |
| Trust & proof | 15% | 55 | 8.25 | AD 5: 32 named instructors with years (3-47) and PSIA/AASI levels; 501(c)(3) stated; refund/weather policy on every priced page. Debits: hub says 'over 30 Level three instructors' vs bios Level 3 x8 / Level 1 x37; 0 testimonials; 0 lesson-volume numbers. | |
| Content & intent coverage | 20% | 55 | 11.00 | AD 1, 10d, 10e: full ladder (ages 4-6, 7-12, 13+, 18+, private, semi-private, Nordic, school, homeschool); Pre-Arrival page 866 words; 21 lesson FAQs exist. Debits: hub 524 words; prices, FAQ, what-to-wear, cancellation sit on third-level pages; meta description missing on 6 of 10 pages; no season label on price tables. | |
| Technical performance | 10% | 25 | 2.50 | AD 7, 10a: Lighthouse mobile perf 28-33 across 8 runs; LCP 7.1-24.7 s; 4.2 MB per page, 66% third-party; render-blocking 2.9-3.1 s; best-practices 75. | |
| SEO foundations (incl. machine readability) | 10% | 55 | 5.50 | AD 2, 10a: Lighthouse SEO 85 hub / 92 Alpine; canonical, breadcrumbs, 11-sitemap index, robots in place. Debits: 0 Offer/Event/FAQPage schema; Organization.logo is a stock latte photo; /llms.txt 404; link-text fail. | |
| Design & hierarchy (incl. accessibility) | 10% | 60 | 6.00 | AD 6, 8, 10f: consistent Veneer/Halis type and navy/blue/sky/red palette, 0 overflow at 390; Lighthouse a11y 92 hub / 97 Alpine. Debits: first mobile screen has no lesson content; 32 of 36 instructor images lack alt; identical Get Started pills; heading-order, aria-hidden-focus, 1 contrast node. | |
| Niche fit: first-time parent | 10% | 45 | 4.50 | AD 10b, 10e: age bands on Alpine cards; potty-training rule, what-to-wear, rental bundle ($539 Mogul package; $35-$50 add-ons) and cancellation rule exist but not on the hub; hub has 0 'rental', 0 FAQ links; first price 1-3 clicks away; template defects 'Ages Ages', '$1 29'. |
Weights: conversion 25, trust 15, content and intent 20, technical performance 10, SEO 10, design 10, niche fit 10. Accessibility is scored under design and machine readability under SEO; the job list still tracks them as A11Y and AGENT.
Lighthouse 12.8.2 mobile, simulated throttling, 4 runs per page (2 batches of 2). Scores varied by up to 5 points and LCP between 7 and 25 s on the same page, so quote the range, not a single number. Local Lighthouse only; no field data (CrUX) was pulled.
The five changes that matter
Top-impact open jobs from jobs.json. None requires a redesign.
- Show a price and an age on the hub and Alpine pages."$" appears 0 times on /lessons/ and /lessons/alpine-lessons/. The first price is 1 click away through an off-screen carousel (Mogul Mouse $349 or $539) or 2 clicks plus 1 collapsed accordion (daily group $59). Mt. Spokane shows "$149 Package / $99 Lesson Only" in the block itself; Mt. Ashland puts the price in the heading.BOGUS-CONV-01, BOGUS-CONV-08
- Fix the Backside Bashers link.
/alpine-group-lessons/backside-bashers/returns 404. It is in the "Explore More Lessons" list on 12 of 14 section pages checked and is the target of the Mountain Masters "Get Started" button. The live page is/mountain-masters/($399). A redirect fixes it.BOGUS-CONV-07 - Give private alpine and Nordic lessons a way to book, and one phone number.Private alpine: 0 reserve buttons, 0 phone, 0 shop links on the page. Nordic: phone x3 and one personal email x3. Numbers in play: 332-5100, 332-5340, 332-5390; two Nordic links show 5390 and dial 5340. Mt. Ashland's private-lesson form captures ability, date and duration with the price inside each option.BOGUS-CONV-02, BOGUS-CONV-03, BOGUS-CONV-04
- Say what each price includes.Group page shows the lesson at $59 and rental as a separate add-on ($35, $40, $50), with a typo ("Ages Ages"). Mogul Mouse says the $539 package includes equipment and a child season pass, but the hub says nothing about rentals. Bridger's Lesson Details block prints "Rental Price: Included / Ticket Price: Included" next to the price.BOGUS-NICHE-02, BOGUS-NICHE-04, BOGUS-NICHE-06
- Cut third-party weight and image bytes on lesson pages.4.2 MB per page, 2.8 MB third-party (Instagram 1.1 MB, Google Tag Manager, Maps 383 KB, reCAPTCHA 356 KB, Facebook 302 KB). Lighthouse estimates 851 KB from modern image formats and 1.1 MB from lazy-loading offscreen images. LCP 7.1 to 24.7 s.BOGUS-PERF-01, BOGUS-PERF-02
Three findings
The path to a price runs through a carousel, an accordion and a dead link.
$ count in visible text: hub 0, Alpine 0, Nordic 0, Instructors 0. The prices are real and fair-looking (daily group $59/$69/$79, private $129 to $439, Mogul Mouse $349/$539, Mountain Masters $399, Nordic private $89 per person) but live on third-level pages. Shop links to shop.bogusbasin.org/s/lessons/* appear on 4 pages (Mogul Mouse, Passport, daily group, Mountain Masters) and on none of the hub, Alpine, Nordic or private pages.
On a phone, the first screen has no lesson in it.
At 390 px the first 844 px show the nav, a temperature, a "Mountain Closed / Non-profit. All good." card with a Season Passes link, the mountain icon and the H1. The Alpine page opens with a navy panel and a "Pre-Arrival Info" link, and no price or button. The hub is 11,314 px tall on mobile; lesson cards begin about 2,600 px down.
The best trust asset is not connected to the booking path.
32 named instructors, certifications and years on snow. 32 of 36 images have no alt text. The only booking-flavored link on that page, "Book A Lesson", goes to the Alpine overview, not to a bookable product. The hub claims "over 30 Level three instructors"; the bios mention Level 3 on 8 lines and Level 1 on 37. One of those is out of date.
Click path: hub to a bookable lesson
curl -sL -m 20, 2026-10-23. Price status is what a visitor sees without clicking anything on the page.
| Hop | URL | $ in page text | Booking control |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | /lessons/ | 0 | None. 3 "Learn More", a row of 6 program links in a carousel that runs off the right edge on desktop. |
| 1 | /lessons/alpine-lessons/ | 0 | 9 "GET STARTED" buttons to program pages; one line says call (208) 332-5100. |
| 2a | .../alpine-group-lessons/mogul-mouse/ | 2 visible ($349 lesson only, $539 package) | "Book Online" x2 and the phone number. 4-session schedule printed with dates. |
| 2b | .../alpine-group-lessons/ (daily group) | 13 in HTML, 0 visible on load (6 accordions, all closed) | "Reserve Your Lesson" x4, phone (208) 332-5340. |
| 2c | .../private-alpine-lessons/ | 9 visible ($129 to $539) | None. No reserve button, no phone, no shop link. |
| 2d | .../private-nordic-lessons/ | 8 visible, one rendered "$1 29" | "Call to make a reservation" x2, phone only. |
| 2e | .../alpine-group-lessons/backside-bashers/ | - | HTTP 404. Linked from 12 of 14 section pages checked. |
| 3 | shop.bogusbasin.org/s/lessons/... | not checked | 403 "Azure WAF" to curl and to headless Chrome. Behind Azure Front Door (CNAME *.azurefd.net). Cart vendor not identified. |
Count: hub to a visible price = 1 click (Mogul Mouse via the carousel) or 2 (Alpine, then program). Hub to a shop link = 2 clicks for Mogul Mouse via the carousel, 3 for daily group, which also needs an accordion opened to see the number. Private alpine and Nordic cannot be booked online from these pages at all. Whether the shop pages show prices before the cart was not verified.
What the pages look like
Headless Chrome, desktop 1440 px wide; mobile through CDP emulation at 390 px, not a cropped window. Scroll inside each frame.
- Where the eye goes (hub): the oversized italic "LESSONS" and a duotone portrait, then the navy cards. The cards are program names with no age, no price and no verb.
- CTA prominence: the only high-contrast pills on the Alpine page are the nine "Get Started" buttons, and they are identical. The status card ("Mountain Closed") sits over the bottom-right corner on desktop and above the H1 on mobile.
- What a parent would hesitate over: "which one is for a 5-year-old who has never skied", "what does it cost with a rental", "is there a fee if she cries and we leave" (the answer is on the Mogul Mouse page, not the hub), and which of three phone numbers to call.
Peers, on identical rows
All fetched 2026-10-23. Bridger Bowl, Mt. Ashland and Mt. Spokane are nonprofit ski areas; Brundage ownership is not stated on the fetched pages.
| Row | Bogus /lessons/ | Bridger Bowl, MT | Mt. Ashland, OR | Mt. Spokane, WA | Brundage, ID |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Page fetched | /lessons/ | /lessons | /lessons/ | /lessons | /ski-ride-school/ |
| Text words | 524 | 1,795 | 1,474 | 1,358 | 1,189 |
| $ amounts on that page | 0 | 0 (12 on multi-week page) | 4 | 18 | 0 (3 on multi-week page) |
| Lesson + rental + ticket bundle price stated | No on hub; package on Mogul Mouse ($539) | Yes, First Timer page: "$100, rental included, ticket included" | Partly: rental added at 20% off | Yes: "$149 Package / $99 Lesson Only" | Not found |
| Age bands on that page | Few (4 uses of "age") | 42 uses; chips on every card | Jump links: 4-6, 7-12, 13+ | Per product | Per program |
| Per-product booking label | "Learn More" x3, "Get Started" x9 | "How To Book" column | "Register for Ridge Runner Lessons" | "Shop Online" | "Book Now" per program |
| FAQ on or linked from page | None on hub | Linked | Section plus a 20-question FAQ page | Not on landing | Not found |
| Minimum age / toilet-training rule on page | On Mogul Mouse page only | Age on cards | Stated on landing | Not found | Not found |
| Request form for private lessons | None (private alpine has no booking control) | No | Yes, price inside each duration option | One contact form | Not found |
| Named instructors on lesson pages | 32 on /instructors/ | None found | None found | None found | None found |
| Offer / Event / FAQPage schema | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Price visible in the first 900 px (screenshot) | No | No | No | No | No |
Fair reading: no peer shows a price in the first screen either. They put it in the first scroll, in the heading of each block. Bogus is behind on price placement, ahead on named instructors, and level on structured data (nobody has it, so adding it is an open lane). Rejected after fetching: Tamarack (price-rich but a destination resort), Schweitzer (0 prices on page), Mt. Hood Meadows (118 words of server text). Lookout Pass is a runner-up. Full list in REFERENCES.md.
Brand cues read from their CSS
bogusbasin.org/dist/cae61953/front-end-css.css, 288,856 bytes, fetched 2026-10-23
Display font Veneer (condensed italic), body font Halis, both loaded as .woff from the theme. Hex counts in the stylesheet: #fff 18, #000 15, #0970af 5, #054166 4. A red / navy / sky three-bar motif sits above section headings. This page uses the same four colors and a condensed italic fallback, since the web fonts are the school's own.
Must confirm with the owner
- Which phone numbers are right: Lessons Sales (332-5100 or 332-5340?) and the Nordic Lodge (332-5390 or 332-5340?). The page contradicts itself.
- Whether the prices shown are 2026/27 rates. No price table carries a season label.
- Whether the shop platform (behind
shop.bogusbasin.org) can sell private and Nordic lessons with instructor choice. The shop returned 403 to this audit; checkout was not opened. - Whether "Backside Bashers" was renamed "Mountain Masters" and the old URL simply never redirected.
- How many instructors hold Level 3 this season, against the hub's "over 30 Level three instructors".
- Who would answer a request form for private lessons and Nordic, and in what hours.
- Lesson volume (students per season) and permission to quote parents.
- Whether the Instagram feed and hiring block are required on lesson templates.
Not verified
- The shop checkout, and what a parent sees after "Book Online" (403 from Azure Front Door to curl and headless Chrome).
- Real-user speed (no CrUX data); only simulated Lighthouse, 4 runs per page.
- Search rankings and search volume; no SERP tests at Tier 1.
- Peer checkout flows and peer instructor pages beyond the lesson pages fetched.