It's one week until Mount Hutt is scheduled to open its doors for the 2020 ski season, but there are two things the mountain would like more of - snow and more importantly, staff.
The team is working harder than ever because there's not many of them, but even if the mountain opens next week only half the usual crowd is allowed up.
In a normal year the field would have around 300 staff on deck, but not during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"This year we're starting way short of that number - somewhere around 80-100," JMac from Mt Hutt says.
He says they plan to start increasing the number once level 1 is confirmed - "certainly in time for the school holidays".
This season has been a challenging one to prepare for because COVID-19 initially meant the season was on thin ice.
"It's been pretty hard for planning - we didn't really know if we could open the ski field until about two weeks ago," he said.
With a base of around 15cm and a storm due on Saturday, they're hopeful of a more normal-looking season down the track.
"We're still looking at whether we will open seven days a week but that's looking quite probable now."
With Mt Hutt's customers 90 percent Kiwi, they're not too concerned about the border closure.
"But the thing they most need now is more snow, and that's one thing that's even harder to control than a global pandemic."
