Our Staff

We are proud of the growth of SkiSoutheast.com and we are proud to incorporate more input from our featured columnists. The following SkiSoutheast authors contribute many informative and entertaining articles throughout the season.

Mike Doble

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Mike is the Editor and founder of SkiSoutheast.com, SkiNC.com and ResortCams.com. Since September 1996 he has posted close to 14,000 posts, articles, photos and videos promoting all of the ski areas of North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland.

Mike is the father of four daughters, is an avid skier and enjoys golf, tennis, kayaking and hiking in the mountains. Winter snowsports and Summer boating on Watauga Lake are among his favorite pastimes.

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Kenny Griffin

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After handling the First Trax and morning updates for 6 or 7 years, Kenny is a little more behind the scenes these days. He's also in charge of all the webcams you see over on Resort Cams. An avid snowboarder, he calls Beech Mountain his home resort. You can spot him on the mountain as he's usually the one hooting and hollering with a camera on his head, especially on powder days.

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Joe Stevens

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Joe is well known around the southeastern ski circles. Stevens was Director of Communications at Snowshoe Mountain Resort for 16 seasons with another 15 years prior to that in Richmond, Virginia newsrooms. Joe serves on numerous boards and committees and currently the Executive Director for the West Virginia Ski Areas Association. Joe has been a featured columnist on SkiSoutheast since 2005 and has written numerous articles for us, as well as for others promoting all of the southeastern ski resorts. Joe is also a member of the West Virginia Snow Sports Hall of Fame, elected in 2022. Joe resides in Scott Depot, West Virginia, with his wife, Angie, and son, Christian, who is studying meteorology at Ohio University. Joe is an avid snowboarder and enjoys running.

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Brad Panovich

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Brad began providing weather input for us and our visitors several years back when he was doing weekend weather for WCNC, NBC 6 in Charlotte, North Carolina. He's been a fan of the website for years and mentioned us on the air numerous times and during the 2008 season he began providing us with invaluable Winter Forecasts and forecast video input.

We asked Brad to join our staff prior to the 2009-2010 season to provide our visitors with video forecast updates every other morning throughout the season and those video updates are one of the more popular page visits each day since. Here's some more information on our snow loving weather guy!

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Matt Laws

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Matt is a lifelong resident of the High Country - where he still resides with his wife and son in Roan Mountain, TN. After graduating from East Tennessee State University in 2010 and prior to joining the Appnet family in 2013, he worked for four years as the sports information director at a local Christian college. Matt also has worked for a variety of local newspapers as a sports writer and photographer - something that he still does in the evenings and weekends. In addition to writing and photography, Matt enjoys all types of sports, cooking and traveling.

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Josh Sullivan

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Josh lives in Raleigh, where he works for WUNC. He moved to North Carolina from Boston, where he frequented Loon Mountain and Pats Peak. He is a graduate of the University of New Hampshire – where he also worked as a professor before his move to North Carolina – and Northeastern University.

Josh loves splitboarding, powder slashes, and small ski areas. He is a firm believer that any snow is good snow.

When not working or snowboarding, you can find him hiking with his dog Ollie, or reading. Send your favorite book and ski movie recommendations his way.

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Brian Dix

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Brian is passionate skier who loves to be in the mountains as often as possible. He grew up in Colorado and began skiing at the age of three. He graduated from Colorado State University in 2006 followed by meeting his wife two years later. They have been living in Charlotte since 2017 with one indoor and multiple outdoor cats. Other hobbies for Brian include bowling, golfing, and grilling.

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Rudy Ryback

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Outdoor enthusiast, skier, snowboarder and telemark skier. Yes, I like to mix it up. While at the University of Colorado, Boulder I became an alternate athlete on the National Championship Ski team. I have had a passion for snow sports my whole life, and that fire continues to burn bright. I spent six years as an instructor at Hidden Valley ski area and loved sharing the gift of skiing and snowboarding with others.

Since moving to Western NC I average about 30 days per year at the local mountains and I'm excited about being a part of the SkiSoutheast team.

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