Vail Resorts, Inc. : Heavenly Opens Skyline Trail

On-mountain Connection Between California and Nevada Sides Open

Heavenly Mountain Resort, Calif./Nev. - January 16, 2012 - Thanks to the West Coast's largest snowmaking system and the ingenuity of the mountain operations, snowmaking and grooming crews, Heavenly Mountain Resort opened Skyline Trail on Monday, January 16, allowing skiers and snowboarders to ski and ride from California to Nevada.

Heavenly snowmakers and groomers combined to cover more than 4,830 linear feet of trail with high-quality, machine-made snow using Sky Express chair lift to help transport snow up to the top of Skyline Trail and push it down the run. Snowmakers also made snow at the top Dipper Express in Nevada and groomers pushed it up Skyline Trail to meet the team pushing across from California.  

"This project has been an amazing combination of creativity and hard work, driven by our boundless desire to make things the best they can be for our loyal guests," said Pete Sonntag, Heavenly's general manager. "We hope this is a project we never have to do again, but with natural snow being tough to come by this season, we felt that opening Skyline was a critical component to the overall experience for our guests. Now that the two separate mountains are connected, we are functioning as one large resort."

Overall, Heavenly is operating 23 lifts with 28 open trails and more than 15 miles of the finest snow surface conditions Lake Tahoe has to offer. Snow depths on the open trails range from 18-24 inches and snow coverage is wall-to-wall.

With snow in the forecast for this weekend, Heavenly is hoping to open additional terrain soon and, with the snow pack that has already been created across all 28 open trails, conditions will only continue to improve.

For a behind-the-scenes look at how the expert staff at Heavenly completed the covering of Skyline Trail, check out http://youtu.be/dF29I3tSLSs.

Contact(s):

Sally Gunter phone: [phone]

Russ Pecoraro phone: [phone]

About Heavenly

Heavenly Mountain Resort is a world-class destination offering guests a one-of-a-kind combination of scenic beauty and exhilarating on-snow experience. Heavenly is a subsidiary of Vail Resorts, Inc., the leading mountain resort operator in the United States. One of the largest resorts in North America, Heavenly spans 4800 acres, climbs to Lake Tahoe's highest elevation at 10,067 feet and features than 94 trails for every level of skier or snowboarder. For more information on Heavenly Mountain Resort, please visit www.skiheavenly.com or call 800-HEAVENLY.

About Vail Resorts

Vail Resorts, Inc., through its subsidiaries, is the leading mountain resort operator in the United States. The Company's subsidiaries operate the mountain resort properties of Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Keystone in Colorado, and Heavenly and Northstar in the Lake Tahoe area of California and Nevada, and the Grand Teton Lodge Company in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The Company's subsidiary, RockResorts, a luxury resort hotel company, manages casually elegant properties. Vail Resorts Development Company is the real estate planning, development and construction subsidiary of Vail Resorts, Inc. Vail Resorts is a publicly held company traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: MTN). The Vail Resorts company website is www.vailresorts.com and consumer website is www.snow.com.

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