Last month we began putting feelers out via the website and social media, to bring on another FirsTrax author and Snow Report provider. We were thrilled to get the response that we did. Snow loving souls from Maryland to West Virginia to Washington, D.C. to Georgia reached out and we received some cool videos and other input from potential candidates looking to join Team SkiSoutheast.
After emailing back and forth with a few of the stronger candidates, it quickly became obvious to me that Josh was our guy. Everything in life is about being a fit and we feel that Josh Sullivan checks all of the boxes.
Several of our frequent readers and a few on Facebook made their FirsTrax reporter requirements known and they were all related to wanting us to fill the position with someone who lives in the mountains and is an avid skier or snowboarder…and someone who has a passion for the sport and industry.
Obviously, we also needed such a person to have better-than-average writing skills; and some technology skills (video, etc.).
Enter Josh Sullivan. While he doesn’t currently live in the mountains, he OFTEN frequents all of the mountains close-by and we are excited to have him join our team.
Josh is also the Social Media Producer for WUNC’s digital news team, so we are confident that he can bring a lot of new production skills to the daily efforts here at SkiSoutheast.com.
If you want to see some of the content Josh sent us to earn the position, check out:
Snowboarding in North Carolina – Digital story:
and Social video: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cn4MNO2NLrQ/
In terms of his bio:
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.
I met Josh this past week and also had an opportunity to visit with him virtually this morning and I thought that I would share some of our conversation.
SkiSoutheast:
Josh, we are glad you saw and responded to the job post earlier last month. What was the driving force for responding?
JSullivan:
I have to be honest – when I first saw it, one of my thoughts was whether or not I was responding too late to be considered. The driving force is the fact that I think about skiing and snowboarding all the time; even in the summer. As a trained journalist, my mind immediately went to what an opportunity this was to professionally get to share my passion and excitement for the sport with an audience like this. I also saw this as a perfect ‘home for some ideas’ that I feel will be great for the website. I really thought this position was a no-brainer for me, but again I was hoping I was not too late.
SkiSoutheast:
Josh, when we first communicated via email and then over the phone, I was a little shocked at how quickly you were ready to jump in your car and head to the mountains to visit with me. In this day and time, when so many people are working remotely, most people are not so quick to pull the trigger, get in a vehicle and run up the mountain. Tell our readers what you shared with me about that.
JSullivan:
Yea, I guess it was important to me to show you how dedicated I am to skiing and snowboarding. I have never lived in the mountains myself and some people might doubt my involvement or dedication to being on the snow every chance I can. I guess I figured that I needed to get that committment addressed right up front so that you and ultimately our readers know that I am one of them. I grew up in the snowboarding culture and I can’t wait to share my passion for the sport.
SkiSoutheast:
Talk a bit about what you feel you bring to the website and what most excites you about joining SkiSoutheast.
JSullivan:
I mentioned that I am a trained journalist, so I have experience in interviewing and all that goes with that – the camera work, video editing, etc. In looking around SkiSoutheast, I see an opportunity to bring more of that into the content. Earlier I mentioned that I love smaller mountains and I’ve been fortunate to hit up many. When I was considering making a move from Boston to North Carolina for the position with WUNC, one of my concerns was whether or not my passion for snowboarding and skiing was going to take a hit. As I Google-researched the area, I quickly found information about Zeb Powell and Luke Winkelmann being FROM North Carolina. Obviously, knowing that some of the best riders in the entire United States were raised on these mountains in the Southeast, that quickly answered any concerns that I had. I’m definitely excited to get on the snow.
SkiSoutheast:
So Josh, this may come as a surprise to many of our readers and it might even cause a few to question us bringing you onto the SkiSoutheast team, but how many of the Southeastern and mid-Atlantic ski areas have you been to?
JSullivan:
Ha! I knew you were going to call me out to the readers on this, but, yea, I have only snowboarded at Beech Mountain Resort. However, I am definitely going to try to get to ALL of them this winter. I can’t wait for the lifts to start spinning. I was stoked to see the snowguns blasting at Snowshoe, Canaan Valley and Timberline the other day. It won’t be long now! 100%, I plan to be there for opening day or the day after at Sugar or Cataloochee and then I’ll be at Appalachian when they open, November 17th (weather permitting).
I can’t wait to make turns with Kenny, Matt, Brian, and Rudy. Of course, it would be great to hit the slopes with you, Brad Panovich and Joe Stevens as well.
SkiSoutheast:
So you mentioned frequenting several mountains when you lived in Boston and New Hampshire, but what is your personal, favorite mountain?
JSullivan:
Glad you asked that. Hands down, my favorite is Bridger Bowl in Montana. Bridger offers a big mountain experience with a friendly local vibe. I just love the place.
In closing – I asked Josh what his favorite snowboard was and he’s going to have to share that answer with you guys on one of his first FirsTrax posts. His immediate answer was, “Too Many!”
He continued with describing his “Burton Process Flying V” and started in on a few others…so we’ll just leave that to Josh to “clean up” and share with our readers moving forward.
So to our readers, welcome Josh Sullivan. Cheers to a great season. If you’d like to extend Josh a bit of a welcome, feel free to email him directly at [email protected]
Of course, you can email me at [email protected]
Where’s Kenny and Matt?
By the way, Kenny Griffin and Matt Laws haven’t gone anywhere. They are just heavily involved in the supporting, business side of all things SkiSoutheast.com, ResortCams.com and other interests. Both Matt and Kenny will continue to share stories, posts and more. We’re are currently exploring the logistics of actually several ‘mini-SkiSoutheast Summits’ this season. We’ll get you more intel on that idea shortly.