Day 121 Furnival

Today was the final Saturday of the season and as such was officially Furnival. This is our end of season where we get  a well known band to play in the plaza and we all get fairly drunk while listening. This year the band was Platinum Blond which I have to confess is a band with who's work I am not over familiar. They were actually very good and everyone enjoyed themselves.

The reason for tonight's indecently late report is that after staying too long at Fernival we biked to the Pub for some food and drink with good buddies and things got a bit out of hand. Only one more day to go.

Overnight things didn't really get cold and it was +3 on the deck when we woke up this morning and as we drove to the hill it was actually +13 as we arrived. Temps at the Timber load were +15 and up the hill it still was +12 at Timber top and +8 at Polar Peak load. These of course were temps in the shade and in the direct sunlight (it was yest another blue bird day) it was a good 10 degrees warmer than the mercury in the shade. In other words we had another day of summer skiing where the slopes in the sun got soft quick and those in the shade warmed eventually late afternoon.

We went to the New Side as this had become too soft very early yesterday. We had several loops through White Pass where it was soft in the Gun Bowl (particularly under the lift tower) Pillow Talk (the chutes were very soft and easy edge to edge jumping) and Morgans Dilemma which was soft and untracked. Polar Peak was open and although the chutes were not open (which means that we can't really say we skied Polar Peak) Crusty Clown Chute was soft and easy bump skiing. The run to base was via Currie Glades as the Reverse Traverse was closed and we went to the Old Side.

On the Old Side things were very soft and we hit Bear Cave chutes which were still icy out of the sun and then New Lift line which was just taking an edge. Cedar Centre was soft as was Kangaroo which needed some serious navigation considerations in the melting snow. We did a few more loops of Cedar Bowl and also Boom Ridge which was still skiing as soft easy bumps. Part of my intention in skiing Boom Ridge was to hit the 20 ft water splash to skiers left of the lift. I was only partly successful in this as all day about half the times I was approaching the splash a skier or boarder emerged from Lower North Ridge and cut me off. What ever happened to etiquette ? A few years ago skiers/boarders approaching a splash would look to see if anyone was going to hit it and hold back if they were. Now they just seem to stop on the ski in, cutting off anyone attempting the splash totally oblivious of anything else going on - sign of the times ?

It was time for lunch and after lunch I was back up the Old Side.  I discovered that the right hand side KC Chutes were open in Cedar Bowl and untracked so I skied them up to the sign line all afternoon and had great untracked skiing on a soft snow surface with a firm under base. Kangaroo skied ok all afternoon although it was getting very marginal towards the end. I also hit Boom Ridge several times over which remained good soft bump skiing on a firm base. The splash at the Boom Load was getting very big and was great water skiing - of course last run a boarder cut me off and I had to bail but that was how things were today.

Last run was Boom Guts which were soft even in the shadows of the setting sun. Beers in the Griz were good and although the deck was very nice we had just too much sun during the day and went for a quiet inside table. The beer was still good. We biked to the pub and had more beer so here we are ready for last day - let's hope it;s a good one.