Some waited overnight to get first chair of the season at Big White

Hundreds of skiers and boarders lined up at Big White's Bullet Chair Friday morning, eager to get in their first tracks of the season. But some were a little more than eager than others.

Brendan Roberts and Donovan Cantu set up camp at the front of the line at 4:30 p.m. Thursday afternoon, in anticipation of the 8:45 a.m. opening Friday morning. This season was the third year in a row that Cantu made first chair of the season, and it'll likely be his last.

“I'm calling it quits, I'm getting too old for it,” Cantu said, describing a several-hour ice storm that fell on them during the night.

But Cantu and Roberts didn't spend the night alone in the lift line.

“Some other people showed up at 1 a.m. and then again at 4 a.m.,” Cantu said.

By the time they got on the first chair of the season, and posed for photos with the “Opening Day 2021” banner, hundreds of people had lined up behind them. Cheers of excitement rang out from the line when the lifties began loading the chair.

While Big White had hoped for a bit more cooperation from Mother Nature leading up to opening day ­– with the resort seeing a less-than-ideal 82-cm alpine base – the sun came out by mid-morning Friday, and conditions began to feel spring-like once the hard crust from the night's ice storm softened.

“This time of year, you've got to be very careful,” said Michael J. Ballingall, Senior Vice President of Big White Ski Resort. “You've got to stay on the runs that we have groomed, that's where it's the safest.”

The resort opened it's Bullet and Plaza chairs Friday morning, along with the gondola. While B.C.'s coast is forecast to get hit with significant rain over the next five days, that precipitation isn't expected to make it to the Okanagan, and with limited snow in the forecast, it's not clear when more lifts may open.

“What's going to happen this weekend, we don't know,” said Ballingall. “[Our base] could go up a lot, or it could go down a little bit.”

For the second season in a row, Big White is grappling with staffing issues, after many potential international employees were unable to secure work visas due to the pandemic.

“We're short literally around the resort, close to 400 staff members,” Ballingall said. “But we're going to make due. Outside, we're all staffed up to run the lifts, to groom, for ski patrol; so far all the safety outside.”

Lifts are spinning from 8:45 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. through the weekend.