Blacktail to open Friday with limited terrain
The sun sets behind a chair lift at Blacktail Ski Area near Lakeside. The ski area plans to open for the season Friday. (Photo provided)
Blacktail Mountain Ski Area will open for the season on Friday.
The resort near Lakeside is guaranteeing at least a partial opening of its terrain, as the Olympic lift and the upper half of the Thunderhead lift are ready to go. But the mountain does not need much more snow to open additional terrain.
“With some snow in the upcoming forecast, we are hoping to open more terrain as soon as conditions warrant,” Arin Lever, Blacktail’s marketing director, said in a press release.
The National Weather Service is calling for the potential for heavy snow in the higher terrain from Thursday through Friday morning, with 5 to 10 inches possible. Occasional snow is expected to continue throughout the weekend.
The ski area “does not rely on snow-making machines to lend a hand to the snowpack,” Lever wrote, “because machine-made snow, although it comes close, is never quite the real thing.”
Blacktail will open the season on its holiday schedule, meaning the mountain will be open every day from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. until Sunday, Jan. 5. After that date, Blacktail will return to its normal Wednesday through Sunday schedule.