Discovering the Joys of Southeast Skiing with Mike Doble: Innovations, Conditions, and Community

Send us a text

In this episode, we're hitting the trails with Mike Doble, the driving force behind SkiSoutheast.com. We'll dive into the heart of the region's ski industry, guided by Mike's passion and dedication. From the humble beginnings of his websites to their current status as community pillars, Mike's honest reporting has kept skiers and snowboarders informed with real-time conditions and live camera feeds. Hear about the growth of local resorts and the rise of local talent on the national stage like Zeb Powell & Lili Bauer.

We'll explore the vital role of snowmaking technology in transforming the Southeast and mid-Atlantic ski scenes. Marvel at the engineering feats that maintain hefty snow bases at mountains like Sugar and Cataloochee, regardless of Mother Nature's whims. 

But our adventure doesn't stop there! We delve into strategic partnerships and the revival of ski resorts like Timberline Mountain and discover the unique bond between ski resorts and meteorologists.

Grab your boots, layer up, and join us for an episode celebrating the chill and thrill of skiing in the Southeast and mid-Atlantic!

Mike Andress
Host, Exploration Local
828-551-9065
[e-mail]

Podcast Website
Facebook
Instagram: explorationlocal

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the snowy slopes of the southeast and
mid-Atlantic.
In this episode we're hittingthe trails with Mike Doble, the
driving force behindSkiSouthEastcom and its family
of websites.
We'll dive into the heart ofthe region ski industry, guided
by Mike's passion and dedication, from the humble beginnings of
his website to their currentstatus as community pillars.
Mike's honest reporting haskept skiers and snowboarders

(00:23):
informed, with real-timeconditions and live camera feeds
here about the growth of localresorts and the rise of local
talent on the national stage.
Like Zeb Pal and Lily Bauer,we'll explore the vital role of
snowmaking technology andtransform into southeast and
mid-Atlantic ski scenes.
We'll marvel at the engineeringfeats that maintain hefty snow

(00:44):
bases at mountains like Sugarand Kataluchi, regardless of
Mother Nature's whims, and we'llraise a toast to the fantastic
conditions and the investmentsthat keep trails pristine and
facilities top-notch.
But our adventure doesn't stopthere.
We delve into strategicpartnerships and the revival of
ski resorts like TimberlineMountain under Chip Perfect's
visionary leadership, and we'llalso discover the unique bond

(01:07):
between ski resorts andmeteorologists, with a special
nod to Brad Panovich's expertiseenhancing our snowy escapades.
From tales of Timberline'sturnaround to the potential for
Hattley Point's revival, we'reuncovering the stories that warm
the hearts of ski enthusiastsand riders.
So grab your boots, layer upand join us for an episode
celebrating the chill and thrillof skiing in the southeast and

(01:30):
mid-Atlantic.
You're listening to ExplorationLocal, a podcast designed to
explore and celebrate the peopleand places that make the Blue
Ridge and Southern AppalachianMountains special and unique.
My name is Mike Andrus, thehost of Exploration Local.

(01:50):
Join us on our journey toexplore these mountains and
discover how they fuel a spiritof adventure.
We encourage you to wander far,but explore local.
Let's go.
I'm super excited to have MikeDobel here with me today.
Mike is the editor andco-founder of SkiSouthEastcom,
skinorthcarolinacom andresortcamscom.

(02:14):
If you are in the southeast, orwherever you are, and you
happen to look at a camerachecking out the great ski
conditions in the southeast,then this is the man and his
company that you have to thankfor that.
So, mike, I know you all have abusy event this weekend, but I
do appreciate you taking acouple minutes out of your
morning.
Welcome to the show, mike.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
Well, thank you very much, and thanks for that
introduction and for the commentabout the big event this
weekend.
Hopefully we'll chat more aboutthat in a minute, but yeah, I'm
pleased to be here.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
Well, Mike, let's start out with a little bit of
background about you, becauseyou are really kind of a sage
when it comes to skiing in thesoutheast.
I think For 28 years you'vebeen involved with Ski Southeast
and I'm wanting to know just alittle bit about your background
, all of the great work that youall are doing at Ski Southeast
and Ski NC and Resortcams.
Let's just find out a littlebit about who you are and what

(03:03):
makes you tick, Mike.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
I appreciate you saying it that way.
Yeah, ski North Carolina, skiNC, we're kind of all of those
are kind of married over toSkiSouthEastcom.
These days we have 16 ski areasobviously in the southeast of
Atlantic.
More about maybe that geographyin a minute.
Yeah, and I also appreciate youmentioning a comment about me

(03:25):
kind of being the sage.
I guess the older you get, themore time you spend on something
.
You kind of become that.
But truly the real sages of thisindustry are a lot of the
general managers, a lot of theowners, a lot of the marketing
crews that a lot of those guysand gals have been at the
different ski areas for quite abit longer than I've been doing

(03:49):
this coverage on Ski Southeast.
There was really the adventback then.
We knew it as the World WideWeb, obviously, but the advent
of that that I got involved.
But bear in mind most of theseskiers have been at it 40 and 50
years or more, so they're thereal sages.
I'm probably thelongest-tenured person to cover
skiers with anything official orunofficial.

(04:11):
Most all the ski areas thesedays will kind of tell you if
you ask them about where you goto to get the most information.
One-stop shop of everythingsnow reports, conditions, live
cameras, those sorts of things.
Certainly it's Ski Southeastand Resort Cams.
I'm just a sage in thisparticular case because I'm the

(04:31):
oldest guy to have somethinggoing for this length of time.
But yeah, we started out of SkiNorth Carolina back in 1995.
We thought we were on tosomething when we started
getting a couple of hundredvisitors per day.
That mutated over into SkiSoutheast.
We had some input from Snowshoeand Canaan Valley up in West
Virginia and they asked us totry to kind of expand.

(04:54):
That Same kind of ditto thatwith Obergatlinburg, which is
now Obermountain, over inGatlinburg, tennessee.
So that became Ski Southeast.
And then we were blessed to bekind of well accepted by most
every ski area in the region.
Wisp Resort up in Maryland kindof became our furthest outlier

(05:16):
and they don't considerthemselves in the Southeast
although they're part of theSoutheastern Ski Areas
Association but there and theykind of think about themselves
being more in the mid-Atlantic.
So our area of coverage hascertainly expanded, that's for
sure.

Speaker 1 (05:31):
You did mention the 16 ski resorts in the Southeast,
which is a lot.
I'm wondering if you can kindof just kind of run through the
kind of the states you know howmany resorts are in each.
It's really surprising to me.
I didn't realize that therewere 16, but yeah, we've got
some good things going on hereand I also love that you started
with Snowshoe.
That's where I kind of cut myteeth and long before the days

(05:53):
of Silver Creek and Snowshoecombining into what it is today,
this great venture.
But yeah, let's talk a littlebit about the geography and some
of those great ski resortswithin the Southeast, mike.

Speaker 2 (06:02):
Yeah, I appreciate that.
Yeah, you mentioned Snowshoe.
Kind of a brother from anothermother, joe Stevens, was the
communication and marketingdirector at Snowshoe For about
16 years.
Joe reached out to me early onI was about probably in year
four of doing Ski North Carolinaand he'd become a fan and
undenounced to me and you knowhe's following us daily and then

(06:25):
I found out that you know, mostall the ski area managers, the
marketing people.
They also become followers ofwhat we were doing.
We thought we were kind of onto something we being, you know,
my team of writers and whathave you we kind of assembled
where you know we calledourselves, you know, providing
no bull ski reports becauseunfortunately a lot of people

(06:49):
from Florida and Georgia andSouth Carolina that were coming
up and going skiing they'd calla ski area and you know they'd
say come on up.
You know everything's fine andoftentimes you get out there and
you'd be skiing around rocksand stuff.
So we started putting togetherthat and of course you know in
the early days there were no webcameras, that you know.
That technology wasn't thereyet.
So you know, we kind of justtold a real story and finally

(07:13):
were able to expand it out.
But yeah, as far as the answerto your question, here in the
state of North Carolina rightnow we have five ski areas that
are open.
There's technically six.
What was called Wolf Laureloriginally then became Wolf
Ridge ski area over in the MarsHill area of Western North
Carolina is now called HatleyPoint.

(07:33):
The husband and wife teampurchased that resort.
They've spent millions ofdollars already.
We're hoping to get open thisyear.
They actually had kind of asoft opening with some skiers
and snowboarders from Recess SkiShop about a week or so ago.
They made snow and kind of dida test opening.
So they're planning onreopening for sure this coming

(07:55):
late fall, early winter for 2024, 2025.
But we have Appalachian SkiMountain and Blowing Rock, of
course, beach Mountain, thehighest ski area in the East at
5,506 feet elevations, and thenwe have Kataluchi, over towards
Western North Carolina.
You know Western CarolinaUniversity in that area.
Sapphire Valley is probably themost southern and western ski

(08:18):
area that we have and it'sreally more of a really nice
family resort.
It just happens to have acouple of ski slopes in a tubing
hill.
But Sapphire Valley, and thenthe largest ski area, probably
as busy if not slightly busierthan Beach Mountain, would be
Sugar Mountain, and of courseit's here in Banner Oak, sugar
Mountain, literally five minutesaway from or 10 minutes away

(08:40):
from Ski Beach, the largest with21 trails.
And what have you State of WestVirginia?
We have four major ski areas,snowshoe being the largest, as
you mentioned.
They've got 61 slopes andtrails.
And you have Canane Valley,which is in Davis, west Virginia
, with 46 trails wheneverything's open there.
And then Timberline, which theykind of had a resurgence.

(09:04):
They went out of business, wentbankrupt and then a family out
of Ohio Chip Perfect is his name, but anyway he bought
Timberline Mountain and got itreopened now three years, three
seasons ago.
So now we have Canane Valley,snowshoe, timberline and Winter
Place, which most people arefamiliar with, you know, right
off the interstate there In thestate of Virginia we also have

(09:26):
four Bryce Resort, masanutton,which is where we're having our
Ski Southeast Summit thisweekend.
We have Masanutton.
Then we have the Omni HomesteadResort which is the oldest and
most historic ski area andresort area in the Southeast Mid
Atlantic, is always known asthe Homestead until, I guess,

(09:46):
five or six years ago.
Omni International.
Omni purchased the mountain andthey've sunk millions of
dollars in it, of course.
Then we also have Winter GreenSki Area, which a lot of people
are familiar with in Virginia.
And then we have two stateswith just one ski resort each.
That's Obermountain, now inGatlinburg, tennessee, and then
I mentioned earlier Wisp Resortwhich is in Garrett County,

(10:10):
Maryland, which is kind of thatlittle notch of Maryland.
It should be West Virginia.
That's where Wisp is located in.
That's an area called DeepCreek Maryland beautiful area up
there and they've got 33 slopesand trails up there.
So it is surprising I know I'mrattling on what you mentioned
Surprised there's a lot ofpeople to hear that we even have

(10:32):
a ski area, and when I mentionit, and then, of course, talk
about the elevations, you've gotsugar and snowshoe, both with
1,400 foot verticals, andsnowshoe with a 1,500 foot
vertical, and you've gotelevations that are approaching,
if not exceeding, 4,500 feetand a number of those skiers.

(10:53):
So we'll get a fair amount ofnatural snowfall and, of course,
snow making is what drives thebusiness and makes them all able
to stay open for sure.

Speaker 1 (11:03):
Yeah Well, just hearing you go through those and
your intimate knowledge ofthese ski resorts, it definitely
reinforces for me that you maynot think you're a sage, but I
think you're a sage.

Speaker 2 (11:14):
So I appreciate that yeah.
It's done it long enough.
Done it long enough.
It's an everyday thing.

Speaker 1 (11:22):
That's right.
So real quick on Maryland.
Did Wisp Resort open up in theearly 90s by any chance?

Speaker 2 (11:30):
No, they actually celebrated and I want to say
this has been maybe eight ornine years ago.
They celebrated their 50thanniversary, so they've been
around quite a while.
It was a family-owned resortfor a long time.
We had a big media weekend upthere, a giant media weekend up
at Whisp Resort, garrett County,a few years back.

(11:52):
The family that had firststarted Whisp Resort.
They actually sold it.
Obviously, as they tend tohappen, they sold it a few years
back, but I want to say theystarted maybe in 1948, something
like that.
I forget, but it's somewhere inthat ballpark.

Speaker 1 (12:13):
This is great, the Southeast Ski, one of the things
that people you and I weretalking a little bit about this
before we started recording.
There's this tendency sometimesfor people to sort of turn
their nose up to the ski resortsin the Southeast.
As you said, people ask isthere even skiing in the
Southeast?
Heavy focus on the Northeastand obviously out West and so

(12:38):
forth.
But the Southeast Ski resortsreally are a treasure if you
live here.
Number one but number two itjust allows people like us who
live in these mountains to stillhave some really great winter
sport recreation places to go.
I'd love to hear your take onanybody that starts to sort of

(13:01):
look down their nose at skiingin the Southeast and really kind
of your philosophy of how theskiing in the Southeast just
fits into the whole wintersports scene.

Speaker 2 (13:12):
Gosh, yeah, that is a great statement question and
lead in because it will beshocking, I would think,
probably to a lot of yourlisteners that, first of all,
skiing in the Southeast, admitAtlantic.
There's kind of an old adagearound here if you can ski in
the Southeast, admit Atlantic,you can ski anywhere in any

(13:34):
condition.
Obviously, a lot of people willgo look down their nose and say
, okay, well, yeah, I've skiedin the South, a lot of ice.
Well, truth of the matter isI've also skied up in Trumblawn,
up in Canada, up above Montreal, and the time that I was there
for that week we had a lot ofice.
So you can find that out inColorado, you can find that

(13:54):
anywhere.
What I will tell you is snowmaking these days, and something
we'll probably talk more abouthere in a few minutes.
But snow making is what drivesthe ski industry.
If we had to depend on naturalsnowfall for skiers in the
Southeast and in Atlantic to beopen and even up into Vermont,
for that matter you'd only beopen maybe a week or two out of

(14:18):
each season.
So it's snow making and theability to make snow and now,
with snow making technologiesadvance, so much the skiers in
the Southeast and in Atlantichave conditions that can rival
pretty much anywhere.
In fact, a couple of, just twoor three weeks ago now, we had
12 to 13 inches of snow up onBeach Mountain, followed just

(14:38):
four days later by another 14inches of snow.
So we had, you know, right attwo feet, two and a half feet of
snow and a lot of powder.
Conditions that would rivalpretty much anywhere.
The skiing in the Southeast andin Atlantic, first of all, it
offers at times a lot of quality.
But I'll tell you that theshocking thing that might shock
a lot of your listeners is thatyou know the number one national

(15:01):
champion snowboarder in theUnited States on the collegiate
level the last two years running, came from Banner Elk, north
Carolina, lily Bauer, who herfather is the ski school
instructor at Sugar Mountain.
Lily Bauer, and the nationalchampionship in the entire

(15:21):
country, was out in Colorado,brought home the national
championship, followed up byanother young lady that right
now her name escapes me, butalso from Lees McCray University
here in Banner Elk, northCarolina.
Both of those young ladies, twoyears running, one the nation's
national championshipsnowboarder.
So you don't have to come fromout West to know and know how to

(15:44):
ski and snowboard.
Right now, the big name insnowboarding nationwide, if not
the world, is a young man by thename of Zeb Powell.
And Zeb Powell also came fromNorth Carolina.
He's cut his teeth onAppalachian, cattilucci or
Floral.
He knows these areas very well,and everybody around this

(16:04):
region is.
We're all big fans of ZebPowell these days.
So you know, there's noquestion that there's plenty of
good terrain and all you have todo is just, you know, stay on
the white stuff you know and youcan have a good time here in
the Southeast.

Speaker 1 (16:19):
Not too long ago, you had some of your meteorologists
and we will talk about themcoming up here in a little bit
too.
But your meteorologists, yeah,I think you had like 11 or 12 of
them on and they all weresaying you know last year, that
you know next year, next season,next season, that's what we're
looking for and so far at least,in these higher elevations it
is really panned out.
This is.
This has been a really goodyear this year, I think in the
Southeast.

Speaker 2 (16:40):
Well, it has.
And you know it's so crazybecause, first of all, everybody
wants to talk about climatechange et cetera, and there's no
question, you know, regardlessof how and why, the seasons are
more challenging because youhave to look for those open
windows of you know coldtemperatures where people can
make, where they can make snow.
But what a lot of people don'tknow is that really all.

(17:01):
For example, somebody likeGunther Yoko at Sugar Mountain
he's pretty aggressive withsnowmaking.
You get one cold night wherethe temperature is 20 degrees
and, believe it or not, man, Imean, they can make eight to 10
inches of snow that arrive onman made snow.
Now that arrival natural snow,they can make eight to 10 inches

(17:22):
of snow across all 21 of histrails on Sugar Mountain in one
night.
So you give them two or threenights of of around the clock
snowmaking temperatures.
You know highs around 25 lowsin the in the low twenties or
teens.
You know they can make enoughsnow to last for a couple of
weeks.
So you know, right now I meanwe're looking at base depths,

(17:42):
I'm looking at sugar right now50 to 99 inches of base.
You've got Appalachianreporting 56 to 103 inch base.
You know, you do the math onthat.
You're looking at over eightfoot depth there you didn't have
snowshoe.
With an average base depthacross all 61 of their trails
They've got 45 inches of snow.

(18:03):
So you know, no question aboutit.
I mean, it's been a good season, but it was going to be a good
one even if we didn't have thenatural snow.
You know, last season, I think,snowshoe averages around 180
inches of snowfall per year andlast year I think they ended up
with like 55 inches of snow forthe entire winter.
You know, look at it right now,through this morning, they're

(18:24):
up at 79.5 inches of snowfall sofar this winter.
Canane Valley and Timberlineare above 100.
They're at 101 right now in theseason.
So, yeah, it's been good forsure.
And of course that's showing up.
As you know, skier visits, youknow, which is what pays these
guys, the kind of money thatthey need to bring in to put up

(18:46):
new lifts and, you know, and putout new snow making equipment
every single season.

Speaker 1 (18:51):
Mike, that is a great lead in actually, because
earlier you mentioned the realsages and this being the general
managers of these ski resortsand the snow makers.
You know who are working, youknow all hours of the night to
try to bring in the bestconditions possible.
I love to hear from yourperspective, because you are so
intimately in the know with allof these resorts, just what kind

(19:14):
of a challenge it is for thegeneral managers, for the snow
makers, that whole team, thecrew.
There may not be some of thesame challenges they have out
west to keep those seasons going.
There's a lot of pressure onthem and I love to just kind of
hear your perspective a littlebit about what type of pressure
they're under.
And that may not be a grid,we'd put it, but maybe it's more

(19:37):
like, yeah, just yourexperience with the general
managers and the snow making andjust how valuable they are and
what they bring to this industry.

Speaker 2 (19:45):
Another good question , I would say.
First of all, none of them feelany pressure at all.
They've done this for way toolong.
They just understand that it'sall about.
You know, you can't control theweather, so you might as well
deal with whatever you have.
And to that end, the real heroes, you know, in the Southeast and
in Atlantic and I've writtenabout this a number of times are

(20:08):
those in the snow making plantand the people who create and
make and farm that snow, and byfarming I mean grooming.
They're out grooming wheneverybody's off the slopes at
the end of the night you know 10or 10, 30, everybody clears the
slopes.
That's when these snow groomers, you know, go out and they'll
start running the mountain andyou'll see them out, like Chris
Bates with Katalucci he's thepresident, you know Katalucci

(20:30):
and Maggie Valley, and yet Chrisis in a groomer every single
morning.
He's out there before sunup andand he's, you know, grooming
the snow.
So the real heroes are the guysthat are out there making the
snow and if you ever really wantto see what goes on behind the
scenes, you can pick up thephone and call pretty much any
skier and ask them if you cancome in and kind of shadow them

(20:52):
for one night.
It'll be a real interestingtake for you to see what they do
.
But I tell people all the timeand this is by logic.
If you think about it, it makessense the very, very, very best
snow making crews in the entireUnited States is not the world,
or right here in the southeastand mid-Atlantic.

(21:13):
And you have to ask yourselfwhy.
The reason why is because theyhave to be.
We don't have nearly theweather.
We don't have nearly the coldtemperatures, we don't have
nearly the natural snowfall.
So these guys have to be andthey really are, and I've
written about them a number oftimes.
Every ski manager that I know,the owners, the general managers
, the marketing people, theirriverboat gamblers they really

(21:35):
are.
And the people, like atAppalachian with Grady Mortz,
you know, who foundedAppalachian Ski Mountain back in
the 60s, and the people whofounded Whispazort I think
Whispaz founded in like 1958 or1959, something like that the
people who founded these things.
They're riverboat gamblersbecause back then we didn't even
have the snow makingcapabilities that we have now.

(21:58):
So they roll the dice everysingle year and you'll see
people like Gunther Yockel andhis wife Kim.
They've bought and paid for Iwant to say two, maybe three, I
think three new lifts in justthe last 10 or 12 years and you
know a couple of million dollarsa pop.
You know 10 million dollars apop I'd have put new lifts up

(22:20):
and they're rolling the dicethat that following next two to
three seasons.
In the face of what everybodyelse is saying with climate
change etc.
In the face of that, they'rerolling the dice and investing
because they believe that it'sgoing to come back to them in
the form of using these bettertechnologies.
You know to make snow, keepsnow on the mountains, and you

(22:42):
know snow, whether it's naturalsnow or manmade snow, and
certainly natural snow more so,is white gold.
You know if you can keep snow onthat mountain, people will come
.
And it's a testament becausejust in the North Carolina area
alone and I know this because arecent study just came out the
six operating ski areas in thestate of North Carolina have an

(23:04):
annual economic impact on thosecommunities of $244.3 million,
so almost a quarter of a billiondollars of economic impact from
just those six ski areas.
So there's a lot that goes intoit and that's what I call those
guys the real sages, because,uh, and they've got the guts to

(23:25):
pull it off every year.

Speaker 1 (23:27):
You know you said the natural snow, manmade snow, and
one of the words that you heara lot of time is fake snow.
It kind of I kind of cringewhenever I hear that because it
doesn't feel fake when I'm on it.
And it's not fake, it's thesame concept.
You got precipitation and coldweather and it might be a little
bit of frozen granular, butdoes that make your skin crawl
ever when you kind of hearpeople talking about fake snow

(23:47):
in the southeast?

Speaker 2 (23:49):
Occasionally more so when I hear a meteorologist say
it because they should knowbetter.
You know, occasionally you getthe weathermen that.
I've heard them, you know,we've been interviewed and uh,
well, can you tell me a littlebit about the resorts who blow
snow?
Well, two things about manmadesnow.
First of all, it's not blowingsnow, it's making snow.
Blowing snow is what drugdealers do.

(24:11):
Making snow is what these guysdo.
And I've also heard a lot ofpeople talk about, as you said,
fake snow.
Well, fake snow is in a canthat you can get around
Christmas time and spray on yourwindows.
You know manmade snow is whatthese guys do.
They make snow.
I even heard I used to fuss alittle bit about some of the

(24:31):
mountain marketing peoplecalling it, you know, packed
powder, because in our opinionback in the day, packed powder
had to be natural snow.
You get a foot of snowfall, theskiers pack it down, the
groomers pack it down and nowyou have packed powder.
But I will tell you, with thetechnology of the snowmaking
equipment out there now you knowSMI and all the great

(24:53):
snowmaking manufacturers theycreate a snow that rivals what
falls from the heavens.
The biggest difference isobviously in manmade snow and
natural snow is that manmadesnow will last longer.
You know, snow that comes fromheaven is so crystallized and so
light that all it takes is, youknow, just a 150 degree day and

(25:18):
that snow is all but gone,whereas manmade snow is
compacted and condensed andcompressed a good bit more and
it certainly lasts considerablylonger.
You can have.
I think we had, I don't knowabout a month ago.
We had a weekend where almost 6or 7 inches of rain fell in a
two or three day period, and yetwe still had all this gear is

(25:41):
still maintaining their basesand being able to stay open.

Speaker 1 (25:45):
That is a really good point.
I remember reading that articleand I was having to work as a
mountain host up at Kataloocheeand watching that rain and
really kind of wondering,because it was a deluge and you
were spot on.
I mean, the thin areasobviously they're going to, you
know, they're going to get tograss or dirt pretty quick, but
for the most part, even with allof that rain, it did not.

(26:07):
And you were, yeah, you weredefinitely spot on.
So kudos to you and obviouslyyou know.
You know what you're talkingabout and you have a lot of
experience with it.
But the rain also seemed tokind of help bring those water
tables up too.
So some of these resorts thatrequire on or, excuse me, rely
on those reserves and thereservoirs, that even the rain
helped them out.
So it was kind of a win-win.

Speaker 2 (26:27):
To be honest with you , we're you know we're blessed
to have enough cold temperaturesat night that these skiers can
make snow and keep everythingopen.
And you know right now I meanit's, I will say as far as the
most challenging weather so farthis particular winter being an
El Nino winter, as you mentionedearlier would be the ski areas

(26:48):
in the state of Virginia.
West Virginia has been favoredthis season Temperatures that
are probably six and eightdegrees colder than anywhere
else in the region, which ispretty normal, but usually what
you'll see temperatures, forexample, it's no shoe.
If you look around Sugar Beach,catalogia you'll see that
there's probably only two tothree degrees difference,

(27:10):
whereas this year West Virginiahas been a bit more favored.
Virginia has had the mostchallenge and they've done
really well.
I mean, I'm looking right now.
Bryce Resort is 100% open withall eight trails.
Maffinutton has 23 of 23 trailsopen.
Wintergreen is probably themost challenged right now with

(27:31):
19 of 26 trails that they haveopen.
But that's pretty doggone goodif you consider that we haven't
had any real frigid nights, butit's been cold enough and the
last, I think two or threenights out of the last three or
four have been temperatures thathave allowed all the ski areas
to make snow.

Speaker 1 (27:51):
Yeah, and I'm so glad to hear that places like Bryce
are continuing to be 100% open.
And you all have your bigweekend.
I know this is kind of just anabrupt pivot, but you all have
your big ski southeast weekendthis weekend in Maffinutton up
in Virginia.
This is an annual thing thatyou all do, right.

Speaker 2 (28:08):
We tried to.
Covid obviously hit, shut usdown, but we had 14 straight
seasons in a row that we did.
A summit started at SnowshoeMountain.
A young lady by the name ofLaura, our cat and Bill Rock,
who used to be the generalmanager at Snowshoe, kind of got
us started with a biginvitation why don't you guys
put on a summit and come up?
And we did it.
And each year we did that overthe years and we kept growing

(28:31):
our crowd.
We had to take off, obviouslybecause of COVID, and, like
everybody did a little shutdown.
And then we're cranking it backup.
This season we're having thesummit at I'm sorry, at
Maffinutton and we're calling itthe summit at the nut.
Anyway, it's this Friday,saturday and Sunday and, as of

(28:52):
this morning, we have 317 fellowskiers and snowboarders and
snow lovers that are joining usfrom all around the southeast
and mid-Atlantic and we're allinvading Maffinutton tomorrow.
So it should be a big time.

Speaker 1 (29:06):
Oh, that's huge.
So talk a little bit more aboutwhat this whole event is and
why it's bringing so many peopleinto it.

Speaker 2 (29:13):
You know we started with ski North Carolina years
ago.
We had a message board, anold-fashioned bulletin board
that, just, you know, people whowere passionate about all
things snow could go on andregister and just kind of
communicate.
And you know, as with anymessage board, it was kind of a
ghost town at first and westarted seeing a bit of a crowd
pick up.

(29:34):
And next thing we noticed, youknow, as people started kind of
introducing themselves andsaying, hey, where are you going
to ski this weekend?
So people started kind ofmeeting up and the very first
summit was actually an informalsummit that I think 10 or 11
guys did at Hawks Nest in NorthCarolina, which.

(29:54):
Hawks Nest is no longer open,but they started the very first
and obviously the idea caught on.
The rest of us started talkingabout it and then we started
putting.
I think the next one was atBeach Mountain.
We had a couple there and thenslowly migrated up to Snowshoe.
What the summit is istechnically just an opportunity.
If you actually go on SkiSoutheast right now and click on

(30:17):
, I think it's up around the tabthat says Community.
The first tab is called Discordand we have a Discord channel
and if your listeners aren'tfamiliar with Discord, a lot of
the gaming community is prettyfamiliar with Discord where you
can log on and continue to beable to connect with each other

(30:37):
and you can share trip reportsand pictures and you know what's
going on.
You know what happened on yourday on the slopes yesterday or
whatever, and I think we're upto around 400 members right now
on that Discord channel.
But what these summits are isjust the opportunity of people
who have connected on thewebsite and they've kind of
found each other, and it's not adating service or anything else

(31:00):
, but it's just we have found somany people.
In fact I have a summit thisweekend out of these 317 people
that are headed that way.
I want to say there's a corekind of the OGs.
You know the originals.
There's probably a core 2025-30people who met on Ski North
Carolina that many years ago andhave followed each other and

(31:22):
they've gone out west, they'vegone to Skiers all over the
Southeast and they meet up.
And right now on Discord, ifyou go over there and look at
Sugar and Beach and Kataluchiaand you click on any individual
slopes, you'll see people whoare saying, hey, I'm going to be
at beach this coming Friday,saturday, if anybody else is
riding, love to meet.
And they meet and they becomefriends and the next thing, you

(31:44):
know they're longtime familyfriends and they're sharing, you
know, hospital visits andeverything else.
So it's kind of become avirtual ski club in that sense,
and these summits that we do arejust the opportunity to
introduce more and more peopleto that.
So this coming Friday, saturday, sunday, tomorrow, saturday and

(32:04):
Sunday we'll be heading andwe'll be skiing out.
Friday night We'll be wearingski southeast gear and having
stickers so people can kind ofrecognize us.
We'll probably see a fair amountof people.
And then on Saturday we'regoing to hit the slopes.
At lunchtime we're going tomeet at the umbrella bar at the
bottom of the mountain.
They've got us set up withtents and tables and stuff and

(32:27):
we're giving away ski southeasthoodies and beanies and t-shirts
and sweatshirts and stuff.
We're going to be giving away alot of swag and then on
Saturday evening, I think fromfour to six, massinut is
treating us to kind of a freeski party.
It's going to be down at theumbrella bar, which is a big
yurt at the bottom of themountain, at the bottom of the

(32:47):
slopes, and you can see theslopes and you can also see the
snow tubing hill and all thelights.
Massinut has got a lot to dothere, but we're going to have
that from four to six onSaturday night, free drinks and
lots of stuff to enjoy.
And then Sunday morning we havefirst tracks where only ski
southeast people are going to beon the snow for about 30, 45
minutes with nobody else on themountain.

(33:09):
So it gives us an opportunityto kind of get out there and
make turns and try and put firsttracks out on some of the
slopes that we'll be able tovideo and film.
So just a good time to come outand meet and greet other people
who love everything to do withsnowboarding and skiing.

Speaker 1 (33:23):
I love it.
I love it and any idea of wherenext year is going to be held,
not to get ahead of ourselves,but I know I can't go this year.

Speaker 2 (33:31):
Yeah, well, we know for certain, the first weekend
in March of 2025, we hosting the15th Steest out the Summit at
Snowshoe.
So we know that probably goingto have a summit in January.
The dates are open right now,but probably have a summit in
January at Beach Mountain, asfar as we know right now, and

(33:54):
we're going to try to scheduletwo or three every single season
.
See, we can't spread the wealtha little bit?

Speaker 1 (33:59):
I love that.
I love that.
Well, let's stay on yourwebsite a little bit in what it
can do for people that areinterested in coming to ski in
the southeast and all thedifferent features and functions
you have, because it's anamazing website.

Speaker 2 (34:10):
I appreciate that man .
We've grown it a lot and youknow we kind of say that I lost
control of the steering wheel onthis website many years ago.
The people who visit it I'vekind of started driving it and
we have more contentcontributors now than ever.
You know people who are comingon and posting stories and

(34:32):
people who are now doing thesnow report each morning are
different.
I did it for probably most ofthe first 20 years, you know,
seven days a week, so it's beennice to kind of hand the reins
over to some of the other guys.
Ski Southeast is pretty cool inthat sense, nice community.
I got a lot of trip plannerthings.
If you're knowing you're goingand you want to get lodging,

(34:52):
there's a lot of ways to findgood lodging and deals and
discounts and things like that.
Resort Cams is kind of a lifeof its own.
We started Resort Cams I wantto say 17, 18 years ago and we
were talking about technology.
I'll tell you this real quickthe first webcams that we had.
A lot of people especially ifyou've got some older listeners

(35:15):
will know what an RCA camcorderis.
But there's that old camcorderthat's used to hold on your
shoulder.
Your family probably bought itfor around $1,500.
And that was what we used tohave as a camcorder.
Now that's been replaced byiPhones and smartphones and
androids or whatever.
But back then we had RCAcamcorders that we duct-tape

(35:37):
plastic bags around.
We did we duct-tape plasticbags around them and called them
a web camera, hooked it up witha piece of programming called
Snappy, which was a capture card.
We went through an old computerand that's how we had our first
cameras and we were actually onthe travel channel and the
discovery channel showing wewere like two or three of the

(35:59):
cameras out of 300 and some outacross the nation.
Slowly but surely that becamehigh tech access and panasonic
cameras, weatherproofed andeverything else.
And of course now we have anetwork.
We've got cameras in London,we've got cameras in the Virgin
Islands, we have cameras allover.
And resort cameras is mostknown, certainly because of the

(36:22):
110 television stations, mostlyin the Southeast Mid-Atlantic,
that use them to show people whoare obviously going to become
and skiing in the SoutheastMid-Atlantic.
So we're pretty blessed to havea good partnership network with
those guys.
And because of that, resortcameras I mean we'll have

(36:42):
anytime it snows.
We'll have 200,000 people go onin one single day.
So both of those websites arepretty busy, for sure.

Speaker 1 (36:50):
Yeah, well, it is amazing and it's.
I'm so thankful.
You know, I'm like you kind ofback in the day when you didn't
really have much to rely on andyou know you could call up or
you can get a report.
But you know, in the 80s and90s especially, we just didn't
have technologies and so it waswhat.
You know.
You were surprised when you gotthere, really.
And now I find myself you know,my kids, will you know kind of

(37:11):
ping me in the middle of the dayhey, dad, do you see what's
going on at Beach?
Or do you see what's going onat Catter Sugar?
And I'm like I do, there'snothing like yeah, yeah.
So I pop on and I check it outand you know, yeah, it's almost
become one of these things thatis just a regular current.
You know it's part of my flowin the winter is just making
sure that I just sort of gothrough all your different
cameras and just check out thedifferent sites and or, excuse

(37:33):
me, the different resorts and,you know, dream about being
there instead of behind my desk.

Speaker 2 (37:38):
It's pretty cool.
20 years ago, and you know, ifyou think about the progression
of digital cameras, we would, wecreate a network of what we
called on snow reporters about20 years ago, where we just
asked anybody who had a digitalcamera and, if you were out
skiing, just take some picturesand send them to us.
And there was a time where wewould get, you know, 800 to a

(37:59):
thousand emails, you know, withphotos where people took, and
they were very grainy, theyweren't very, you know, we
weren't very good.
They took forever because wewere on dial up back then.
You know, it was a blessingwhen we went to DSL, right.
So all of that technology'schanged, but we used to have a
kind of a network of people whowould just send us photos and we
used to give them, you know,free lift tickets and that sort

(38:21):
of thing, and anytime we couldget some good stuff to use fast
forward to down.
You know, man, everybody's got acomputer running along with
them in their pocket, you know,in the form of an iPhone,
smartphone, Android, whatever.
And then those who really wantto go big, you know, you have
your, your go pros and helmetmounted and everything else.
So now, man, you know we don'teven ask.

(38:42):
It's not much question thatevery single day, you know,
we're flooded Facebook,Instagram, TikTok.
You know we're flooded withimagery and videos to use.
So our job, you know, with SkiSoutheast has become so much
faster and so much more.
We have so much moreconnectivity, you know, with the

(39:02):
end users, a lot moreinteractive connectivity with
them as well.
You can FaceTime, you can livestream.
Kenny's going to be.
Kenny Griffin is going to be upat Masanut this evening and he
plans to hit the slopes tomorrow, and the very first thing Kenny
will do will break out as GoProand do a live stream right from
the slopes.
So the technology has just gonebonkers in what we're able to

(39:26):
share and how it used to be thatwe had to dance through a lot
of hoops just to get any kind ofa live interview going on the
slope side.
Now you can do it from prettymuch any Ski area in the region.

Speaker 1 (39:37):
Speaking of the region and I don't know if this
is kind of putting you on thespot or if you even feel
comfortable answering thequestion but you know, as you
kind of look over the landscapeand the portfolio of all of
these resorts in the Southeast,there are a few that are going
to really kind of stick out tome as being extremely, you know,
family friendly, beginnerfriendly.
You know my kids all started atBryce.

(39:58):
It was just such an amazingexperience up there for them and
there was enough terrain chainswhere they can sort of progress
up even at just at that oneresort.
But I'm curious to know howwould you sort of say you know,
these are some of our resortsthat really cater to or have the
most for expert skiers.
You know Southeast expertskiers and people who are

(40:19):
looking to progress from, youknow, just being on, all the
greens and the beginners andthen the places that are really
really kind of family friendlyand beginner friendly.
And you know, hopefully thatdoesn't discredit any of the
resorts, you know whatsoever,because they all embrace what
they have and they all embracetheir own geography and
topography that they can't doanything about.
You know, it's just what theyhave.

Speaker 2 (40:38):
Yes, interesting.
I really, really, reallythought you were going to come
at this from a different angle.
I thought you were gettingready to talk literally about
the fact that which one is thebest for beginners, and then you
kind of flipped it on me andsaid which one is the best, that
people are looking for expertterrain?
So you kind of flipped thequestion on me because I will
tell you that all 16 skier is.
It's a very political answer,I'll go ahead and say it up

(41:00):
front, but all 16 skier is catermostly to beginners, and if you
don't realize that, all youhave to do is look at when they
first open up what are the core?
trails that they're making snow.
Where are they investing alltheir snow making?
And they're doing it on thosegreens and certainly the easier
blues.
And that's because, gosh, youknow, 75% of their visitors in

(41:23):
traffic are people who only skionce or twice, maybe three times
a winter.
So that's the reverse, is thebeginning terrain, beginner
terrain.
I'll also say every one of theski mountains, because of that,
do a good job of offering goodterrain to ski on.
I've got a couple ofpreferences that I tell people.
If you're a beginner youprobably ought to try first.
Certainly, appalachian skimountain would be one of those.

(41:43):
Pound for pound, chris Batesand those guys, drew Stanley,
operate the best you know skiarea in the Southeast
Mid-Atlantic.
And I say pound for poundbecause obviously they're
smaller and more compact as faras the reverse of that, which is
what you flip the switch on meand surprise me with no not much
question, sugar, you knowyou've got Gunther's way, you've

(42:05):
got Tom terrific.
You've got Balderdash,boulderdash, whichever way you
want to call it.
Those are some prettychallenging trails, not much
question.
I'm not going to say expertwise beach, a little less in
terms of you know, if you'rereally looking as an expert to
want to hit that expert terrainwhite lightning obviously we'll
give you a little thrilloccasionally if you want to hit

(42:26):
that.
I think you know.
Again, if you're looking atoverall areas, I will tell you
Whisk Resorts got some realchallenging blacks.
Timberline Mountain now you knowfrom West Virginia, timberline
and right next to Canane Valleyover there in Davis, Tucker
County, davis, west Virginia.
Timberline's got some really,really nice terrain on that

(42:48):
mountain and in fact I've talkedto some of the marketing
directors at several othermountains in the area and
they'll all tell you, you knowthey would love to have the
terrain that Timberline has.
They've got a couple of doubleblacks that are legit.
So Timberline, probably chiefamongst that snowshoe, I'll tell
you, man, not too many peopleshould ever be going down lower

(43:11):
Shays Revenge, that's SnowshoeMountain, upper Shays, really
nice glide trail, long wide.
But man, you hit lower Shaysabout as expert as you want to
probably find in the Southeastgoing to lower Shays, lower Cup,
same thing.
You know upper cup, lower cuppretty difficult.
Some people would tell youWidder Maker occasionally.

(43:32):
But Widder Maker is just youknow just steep, that's all it
is.

Speaker 1 (43:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (43:36):
Hopefully that answers your question.
But they're all great.
I think you know I don't care.
I mean Whisp Resorts also got alot of easy green glide trails.
So does Timberline.
Timberline's got Salamander,which is the longest trail in
the region.
It's two miles long.

Speaker 1 (43:51):
Whoa.

Speaker 2 (43:52):
If you're a snowboarder you're going to cuss
it a little bit because you'vegot to really get some momentum
to make it all the way downwithout having to skate some.
They've all got good terrain.
My favorite now is probablyTwister at Timberline Mountain.
Top to bottom.
That is a very long, almostgives you the feeling that
you're doing you know the superG or whatever it is.

(44:12):
You watch the Olympics.
Wow you have a lot of gravity,you know type skiing where you
can.
You know left right, left right, all the way through, and it
ends going through a couple oftunnels.
Oh, the end of the mountainsaid that they're all it's.
They're all great, but I'd sayprobably expert sugar's got a
couple, two or three.
I mentioned Gunther's I'mterrific and Boulder Dash and of

(44:34):
course I mentioned lower shadesIs about as difficult as it
gets.
And then Timberline's got acouple of doubles that are
pretty sweet.

Speaker 1 (44:40):
Nice Timberline is the one that is the top on my
bucket list.
Actually I've skied nine of thesixteen in the southeast and
the and the middle of ink, butthe Timberline is the one I
think they didn't.
They undergo like a majorrenovation you might have
alluded to that like in the lastcouple of years, or maybe even
last year was a first year theyopened up under the new
renovation.

Speaker 2 (45:00):
Yeah, won't go into the back story or history, but
that mountain really fell apartwith the previous ownership,
unfortunately, and they wereoperating and on a literal
shoestring budget and communityup there really started
complaining and they filed forbankruptcy and they shut it down
.
They had a lift accident thatactually kind of exacerbated

(45:23):
their downfall but then, due tosome legal issues up there, the
mountain was shut down.
A couple made bids on it andthe highest bid that one Was
actually contacted within anhour of actually having the
winning bid to purchase themountain.
He was contacted by a, chipperfect.
It's a great name to have as a,as a new owner of the perfect

(45:48):
family.
But anyway, chip perfect in hisentire family, made a phone call
to the guy who made the highestbid and said Would you allow us
to give you an extra littlechunk of money and let us win
the bid because we think we'd bebetter at running it?
And they, they sold a guy whomade the highest bid.
They sold them on allowing themto do so and so, yeah, three

(46:08):
seasons ago, chip perfect camein.
They immediately put in a brandnew Couple of brand new lifts,
brand new lifts at the bottom ofthe mountain to service the
entire area immediately, didmillions of dollars in snow
making upgrades which includescompressors and pipes and
everything else immediatelyspent a ton of money in the base

(46:30):
area for the Lodge and inrestaurants and everything else,
and then opened it up literallyin Less than a year and two or
three months they went from zeroto hero and I kid you not, man,
what they, what they did, wasastonishing, and we can only
hope that Deborah Hadley and herhusband over at Hadley Point,

(46:52):
which you used to be wolf, willfloral right right only hope
that they're doing the samething at Hadley Point.
All indications seem to say youknow the look that way.
So but yeah, that was acomplete turnaround.
And Timberline is now I meanit's arguably it's a go-to place
in West Virginia for sure cool.

Speaker 1 (47:11):
Well, that reinforces it for me and, yeah, that's
definitely top of top of mybucket list right now.
And, and I agree about HadleyPoint, I really hoping all the
best for that, because it seemslike what they're doing in terms
of the investment Changing the,the entire you know face of
that lodge and you know,replacing all of the, the pipes

(47:32):
for the water, for the snowmaking yeah, there's a huge
investment.
I'm I think we're all rootingfor them, you know, no doubt,
and I think they're doing theright thing too with the
mountain bike trails as well, asI understand it.
So I'm really stoked to hearthat too.
So, well, good, well, listen, Iknow we've been on for a while
and you've got a ski southeastevent at Massa, nothing that
you're trying to get to.
But before we let you go, themeteorologist I know Brad

(47:56):
Panovich.
I don't know if I said thatname right, brad, I'm sorry if I
butchered it, but they're a bigpart of what you do.
You engage them, they use yourresources, and I wonder if you
could just, maybe just get kindof give a little bit of a shout
out about your partnership withmeteorologist in the area.

Speaker 2 (48:12):
Yeah, we're blessed.
Long time ago we startedputting these cameras up.
You know they, they.
I'll tell you a little funnyreal story back story.
I think it was 1999, maybe 2000, I put up the very first web
cameras.
The website was highcountrywebcamscom.
I didn't announce it to anybody, I just put it up and had it

(48:34):
running and it was almost likethe field of dreams movie.
You know, though, kevin Costnermovie, build it and they will
come.
I put it up and it wasThanksgiving weekend.
I was over visiting with mybrother and my mom was in the
living room watching the Macy'sParade and a commercial came on
and all of a sudden my momscreamed At the top of her voice

(48:55):
and we all ran in to see whathad happened to mom.
And what had happened was is onthe television screen.
She saw WBT out of Charlottewas featuring showing
high-country web cameras onscreen cool and.
Eric Thomas, which was, you know, chief meteorologist there and
still is, was featuringhigh-country web cam and you

(49:15):
know to ask how in the worldwould he know?
Well, we had already put upcameras.
We just didn't have them on anofficial website.
But we had evidently had enoughfollowing with with ski North
Carolina that people realizedthere was cameras around.
But yeah, we're really blessedto have right now I think we're
over 120 Televisionmeteorologist Joe Murgo and the

(49:35):
guys up in the AltoonaPennsylvania.
They feature Wisp a lot.
We have a lot of WB AL out ofBaltimore.
You mentioned Brad Panovich andyou did pronounce his name
right.
Yeah but Brad.
Brad is probably the themeteorologist in the southeast
man Atlantic that has thebiggest following.
He is literally a man ofCharlotte.

(49:58):
He's been voted that byCharlotte, charlotte teens
everywhere in the Queen City.
But Brad's got something like ahundred and eighty thousand
Facebook followers I think he'sover 200 and some odd thousand
Instagram.
He's big on, you know, all ofthe social media and he is also
ski southeast Chiefmeteorologist.
He puts up studio quality videoevery single week for us and

(50:21):
does the skiers forecast.
So we're really blessed withthat.
Jim Ken Torrey and Paul Goodlowwith the weather channel been
blessed ski with both of thoseguys and their families or kids.
And you know we kind of loveour television network people
because they're out thereshowing us and it's unsolicited.
It's a great synergy.
We don't have to spend a pennyfor it and they love it and we

(50:44):
love them.
So, uh, so yeah, we're blessedto have a big Network of TV
media that shows us for sure.

Speaker 1 (50:51):
You probably had no idea Way, way, way back when the
impact that ski southeast andresort cams and all of this
would have in today, in 2024,did you?
I mean, how would you knowright?

Speaker 2 (51:04):
None, none, none.

Speaker 1 (51:06):
None whatsoever.

Speaker 2 (51:07):
You know it's just a passion.
And you know I actuallyremember when, when we started
building our first websites Ofcourse I'm located in here in
God's country, in the highcountry, uh, where we have, you
know, a year-round mountainbiking, whitewater rafting, golf
, skiing, you know, you name it.
So I started contacting some ofthe chambers and this was back

(51:28):
in 95, started contacting someof the chambers about.
You know, we've got some greatski resorts around here.
We ought to build a website tofeature skiing, and I would do
the same thing with golf and I'ddo the same thing with hiking
and whatever.
And None of them really Got it.
They were all saying, you know,sounds like a good idea, but
you know, nobody was reallyMoving on it.

(51:50):
So I went out and I looked andyou know, golf north carolinacom
was available.
So we built that and promoted550 golf courses in the state
and then we Did ski northcarolina and I called a few of
the ski areas and you know theywent well.
You know we've got our ownwebsite.
I don't know why we would needto do this.
So there was no realrecognition Of the value of it.

(52:13):
They were still doing radiowhen you know you'd listen at 11
o'clock in the morning, you'dhear Some guy come on and read
the ski report for all 16 skierson the radio.
You know took about four orfive minutes and it was just.
You know, appalachia skimountains got a base of 55
inches and all nine trails openand they go through all of them
and that was the only thing thatthey were doing.

(52:34):
So, uh, it was just a passionwhen we first started it and I
don't know if it's okay to sayit might, but hell, no, I had no
clue, you know how big it wouldbloom to be.
So we're very blessed and, youknow, tickle the depth to have
the message spread and we'rekind of the unofficial official.
You know, everybody kind oflooks at us.
As you know, we're here to staynow and, and um, you know we,

(52:56):
we have good synergies with allthe ski area management crews
and Presidents and owners, etc.

Speaker 1 (53:03):
So bless to say so as a consumer of ski southeast and
somebody who just found you allrecently, uh, last few years I
thank you for all the work thatyou do and you know I know you
have one family here that we allare looking at Many of your
cameras and if it wasn't for thework that you all have done and
the groundwork that you've laid, I don't think many of us would
have the kind of the experiencethat we have.

(53:24):
You know I'm kind of remindedof.
Sometimes we go and we do theexperience and I'm thinking of
especially a lot of the familiesand a lot of the, the beginners
and people who are coming up.
You know there's anticipationabout their first ski trip and,
you know, for them to be able togo on to ski southeast or see
the webcams.
It's just so cool that to me itjust kind of gets them hyped up
before they actually get thereand then as they go home, you

(53:47):
know they look back on theirexperience and I think they're
always Probably looking back atthe cameras and it just kind of
drums up great memories of agreat experience.
So From a consumer, I can'tthank you enough.
As a podcast host, I cannotthank you enough.
I have thoroughly enjoyed thisand, again, thanks for your time
.
I know that you have a bigevent this weekend and ski

(54:08):
southeast.
We didn't even talk about this,but it's not like your
full-time job.
You actually have a real job,you know, and and this is you
you would not know and I wascompletely blown away and
surprised to hear that.
But, mike man, thanks fortaking time with me this morning
.
I hope it's not the last timeyou and I have a chance to to
talk and hopefully you and I canactually get out there and Make
some turns and I apologize fornot hitting you up last night to

(54:28):
have been able to make thatpossible, so hopefully there
will be another time for us.

Speaker 2 (54:33):
Yeah, we will definitely any time and I'll
just share with your listeners,anybody who's listening in.
If you haven't skied before,you haven't snowboarded before
snowtubed, you know you need toget out and check it out.
I think you get hooking andsnowboarding.
It's a culture.
It's more of a feeling that acommunity that you can become

(54:53):
part of, and everybody islooking, especially nowadays
with so much volatility going onin America.
People are looking for anopportunity to become a part of
a community and part of somebodywho gives a flip about each
other.
And I'll tell you the communityand skiing and snowboarding,
it's just natural.
There's no fake in it.
You either love it or you don't.

(55:15):
So I would tell you we're tryingto grow the sport, we're trying
to grow the industry, and thebest way we know how to grow it
is to invite anybody.
If you listen to this and youhave not skied or snowboarded
before, give it a shot.
It's a lot easier than youthink.
Get a lesson.
That's an easy way to find outwhether or not you have any.

(55:36):
You know any DNA, the talent inthat DNA that will allow you to
do so and enjoy it.
But you know, we're trying togrow it.
So I appreciate the opportunityto come on here and share that
message with Exploration Localfor sure.

Speaker 1 (55:50):
Thanks for joining us on this exhilarating journey
through the snow-covered slopesof the Southeast and
Mid-Atlantic.
I hope you've enjoyed ourconversation with Mike Doble,
the visionary behindsoutheastcom and, as you've
heard, the family of all theirwebsites.
As we wrap up this episode, Iwant to extend a huge thank you
to Mike for sharing his passionand insights into the region's
vibrant skiing and snowboardingindustry.

(56:11):
We've explored thetransformative role of
snow-making technology and we'vecelebrated the fantastic
conditions that make skiing andsnowboarding in the Southeast
and Mid-Atlantic such a thrill.
If you're new to Ski Southeastand you'd like to find out more,
check them out at skisoutheastcom and you're going to
join thousands of others therethat have come to depend on ski

(56:31):
southeastcom for all theinformation needed to make a ski
vacation or getaway the bestthat it can be, by providing
dependable condition reports,weather and more.
That's going to do it for thisepisode.
I hope you enjoyed it.
Please consider leaving areview wherever you listen to
this episode.
It truly does help us reachmore people.
Join me on Instagram andFacebook and drop me a note at

(56:54):
mike at explorationlocalcom ifyou ever have a suggestion for a
future episode or you just wantto connect and say what's up
Until next time.
I encourage you to wander far,but explore local.

Speaker 2 (57:19):
Thanks.