For a handful of skiers, the ski season at Whitefish Mountain Resort started hours before the first chair ascended Big Mountain at 9:30 a.m. Friday. By 8 a.m., there were already enough anxious skiers and snowboarders to fill up about 20 chairs, and a few dedicated riders arrived at 4:30 a.m. to secure the first spot in line.

“It’s the first chair of the entire season,” exclaimed Anthony Tatun, who stood in line at Chair 1 with three friends for five hours to stake his claim for the coveted first chair.

“It’s a big deal,” his friend Keyaunn Wood insisted.

The group of high school students — mysteriously absent from class on a Friday morning — said they woke up at 4 a.m. and fended off a few line-jumpers to ensure they got the first ride of the season.

Their early start was apparently warranted, according to other eager skiers behind them in the lift line.

“It’s hard to get first,” Anders Soyland reported. “We’ve come four years in a row and gotten at least in the top 10.”

Looking at the group at the very front of the line, he said, “That’s dedication.”

Soyland and his crew — with members as young as 10 — got in line at 5 a.m. Their group kept warm and occupied themselves by napping on the snow and, at one point, grilling bacon in the line.

“Next year we’re going to spend the night,” Soyland promised.

The early season conditions helped keep the long-suffering skiers warm for hours in line, although they created less-than-ideal circumstances on the slopes. It was 28 degrees at the summit at 8 a.m. on Friday and the snow base was 31 inches. But from his spot in line for the second chair of the day, Jonah Talaga said, “You can’t go wrong with opening day, even if there’s one run open.”

Chairs 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, the Bigfoot T-Bar and the Big Easy Carpet were running on Friday. Fourteen runs, all groomed, were open, almost exclusively on the north side of the mountain.

Fog and the occasional snow flurries hovered over the summit, and quite a few shrubs could be seen poking up across the mountain. By the time the lifts started, the line at Chair 1 was over 20 minutes long. This crowd of early skiers quickly cut up the modest snow cover on the few open runs.

But most of the first-day revelers didn’t seem too disappointed.

“It’s not a bad first few runs,” said Megan Keyser, who recently moved with her family to Whitefish from the Portland, Oregon, area.

Her daughter Isabella was less enthusiastic about the conditions, but they both agreed opportunities like opening day were a big part of their decision to relocate to Montana.

“We love skiing,” Megan said.

Reporter Bret Anne Serbin may be reached at bserbin@dailyinterlake.com or 758-4459.