Variable. <BR> <BR>That's the word of the day. The cruisers at South...Jester, Spring Fling, etc., were all groomed fast and fun. Ripcord was obvious from the lift to contain windblown crud over ice bumps, so we avoided it. Never made it to Castlerock. <BR> <BR>After riding the Slide Brook Express, we found the surface at North a.k.a Mt. Ellen to be even better on the groomers. Exterminator was filled with fun albeit arythmic bumps of soft snow pockmarked with the occasional icy patch. <BR> <BR>We then got a "bright" idea to ski Slide Brook by entering from Rim Run. Dumb, dumb, dumb. I have <I>never</I> seen wind crust like that, some 3" thick when it slabbed. The wind damage is devastating with pine needles everywhere coating the snow surface. It was tough to pull skis free of the crust and actually execute a turn in there. More than 2000 vertical feet of survival skiing later, we caught the Mad Bus back to the lifts. <BR> <BR>Wanted: One Good Dump. Storms accompanied by wind need not apply.