Day 45 Furnival

Furnival is the last Saturday of the season and is a bit like Hot Dog day in that it is more about partying and having a good time unless conditions are such that you just have to take the skiing seriously which today did not apply.
Overnight there had been a skiff of snow and on the way to the hill temps were -1 which meant that all the soft stuff we had tracked up yesterday was frozen to a bullet hard rutted base and the new snow was nowhere near deep enough to cushion us from the consequences of trying to ski on it. Our only hope was for a warm up during the day which would soften the surface but this didn't really happen. It did warm up a bit but there was a cold wind all day ( the ridge line snow plumes were totally spectacular) but the sun was either behind clouds or obscured by haze and that together with the colder starting temps meant that nothing softened all day. Strictly speaking a few bits of the lower mountain and some south facing groomers did get a little softer but none of what we would call the interesting skiing became anything like soft. Even half way through the day upper mountain temps were around zero.
We went to the Old Side to check things out and found everything hard, even the groomers. Trips through Lizard and Cedar bowl failed to find anything soft. Around 11 we stopped to watch the start of the Powder, Peddle Paddle ( a four legged relay race of skiing, biking, canoeing and running)before completing some more Cedar and Lizard loops which failed to reveal any soft snow.
We went to the New Side and tried some White Pass loops which were unsurprisingly hard and crusty. We ran to base twice through Highline, Silver Lining, Trespass Trail and Diamond Back which were hard and mostly ungroomed particularly in the icy final section of Diamond back which was very slick.
We ran to lunch down Currie Powder ( the county line was closed) and it was very scratchy and ungroomed. Gilmar trail looked a bit smoother but was still very icy and we only found soft snow as low down as in the top of the Meadow. Lunch.
After lunch we tried the Old Side again without much success - Bear and Arrow and places like that were getting softer but everywhere else was still bullet hard. I had three runs down Boomerang which if anything got tougher, icier and generally just more unpleasant each time. Of course I did have to suffer a fair amount of "crazy Brit" abuse from the Boom Chair from buddies for skiing ice bumps but what else can you do. A hike out to Skydive just seemed like recipe for a trip to the hospital so I had a run down a very icy Dancer and then an early finish for Furnival.
The band were ok but I still think we would have done better with Shred Kelly. Way too much to drink in the bar with buddies and some good plans for what to do over the next few weeks when the hill closes. So here we go for the final day, just a warning, if past years are anything to go by tomorrows party is going to be so out of order that there will be no report from me until Monday morning so be warned.