Blacktail celebrates 14 years with snow and sales

Despite the hard-time many Montana ski-resorts are having with low snow-pack, Blacktail Mountain Resort is having no trouble at all.

That’s partly due to the choices made by Steve Spencer, a 41-year ski slope veteran who is manager and part-owner of Blacktail, and the north-facing slope the crew of four owners made Blacktail’s home 14 years ago.

“The north slope means a lot,” Spencer said. “Once you get it (snow), you keep it.”

Snow has graced the slopes of Blacktail since Nov. 12. Snow on north-facing slopes doesn’t get direct sun, so it doesn’t melt unless temperatures rise and temperatures have averaged 22-27 degrees at the summit all winter.

As of Monday, Blacktail reported 146 inches of snow with a settled base of 94 inches, Whitefish mountain resort reported 149 inches of total snow with a settled base of 75 inches and Missoula’s Snowbowl reported 80 inches of total snow with a settled base of 35 inches.

Between the three, Blacktail has the cheapest tickets at $36 for an adult lift ticket, and with a economy full of concious spenders, it makes for good business. 

“The economy going down has probably affected us in a good way,” Spencer said “Last year was a phenomenal snow year for everybody, and we’re up (in sales) over last year.”

Blacktail’s ticket price has stayed the same for the last four years. Before Blacktail was even built that was an important priority in Spencer’s mind. He worked at Big Mountain for 27 years before setting his goals on a resort of his own. He went from ski patrol to resort manager and saw the resort go from one lift to the ten it has now.

And the bigger it got, the more local skiiers he saw drop off the face of the mountain.

“It was getting a little glitzy and a little pricey,” Spencer said.

But, he doesn’t see Blacktail as a competitor to Whitefish Mountain Resort. He sees it as serving a different community of skiers. Ones interested in good skiing close-to-home without lift lines or crowded ski runs, for a price that’s reasonable for their budget.

That’s the vision he’s seen to fruition.

Spencer and his partners—Dennis Carver of Carver Engineering, Toms Sands of Sands Surveying and Jeff Sorg of Northwestern Building Center picked the spot not just for it’s north facing slope, but more importantly for it’s ability to get a forest service special-use permit.

Sixteen years ago, the spot where Blacktail is stood empty, save for a building that served as a Defense Early Warning Site that was manned from 1958-1975. There was a federally maintained road that went from Lakeside up to the summit, where the building stood. And the spot was an “island unit,” public land surrounded by private.

They obtained a forest service permit relatively easily for those reasons. Then the four got to work. Spencer’s ability and experience with mapping out runs and chair-lifts matched with an engineer, a surveyer and access to materials. It made for relatively quick construction.

They started building in 1997 and opened the resort for the 1998-1999 season.

“We all contributed something, which saved a lot of money in the planning phase and the building phase,” Spencer said. “Which is why we can keep our prices down.”

He said one of the things that has a tendency to drive ski resort prices up is real estate investment. Which is not going to happen on Blacktail because there is a lack of land.

Another price-driver is expansion, something Spencer can see in the future, but only when Blacktail has reached it’s capacity of 2200 skiers per day. Right now they sit between 1100 and 1700 per day and most of the regulars know Spencer by name.

“They’ve been coming here for 14 years,” Spencer said. “I just knew this spot had potential.”