Introducing…(drum roll) Blacktail, Montana!

When Blacktail Mountain, Mont., cranks up its lifts around Thanksgiving, it will be the first new ski area on U.S. Forest Service land since Beaver Creek received its permit back in 1978. Unlike Beaver Creek, Blacktail is a relatively modest local ski hill, designed and built on a tight schedule and on a budget to match. The total investment of $2.7 million, about the price of a high-speed quad, will result in a complete ski area with three chairlifts and 24 runs on 1,440 vertical feet.

When so many other planned ski centers of the past two decades have capsized, what combination of planning smarts, USFS policies, virtual absence of environmental issues and lucky stars shone upon Blacktail? The glib answer is that it appears to be the right-size project built at the right time by the right combination of talents in the right national forest.