Vail Resorts Guests Can See How They Stack up Against the Most Successful U.S. Ski Racer of All Time and Share Their Results with Family and Friends Through Social Media
To Kick-Off the Inaugural Season EpicMix Racing Will Be Available for Free December at Vail, Breckenridge, Keystone and Northstar Resorts December 15-21st
Beaver Creek and Heavenly Resorts Open EpicMix Racing on December 22ndWorld Champion ski racer Lindsey Vonn along with race pros from Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone, Heavenly and Northstar set their course times to kick-off the EpicMix Racing season set to begin December 15th at each resort. The race pros will take their times and use it as a baseline for each resort race course to allow all Vail Resorts guests to compare their time to Lindsey Vonn. The race pro pacesetters were anywhere from eight to 30 percent behind the great Lindsey Vonn.
“World Champion ski racer Lindsey Vonn setting the pace on Vail Mountain for EpicMix Racing marks the first step in bringing amateur ski racing into the 21st century,” said Stacey Pool, Vail Resorts Director of EpicMix. “We have completely redesigned how skiers can fully utilize the latest digital technology to compare themselves against the very best as well as seamlessly track and share all of their accomplishments and compete against racers from six world-class resorts.”
To kick-off the EpicMix Racing inaugural season Vail Resorts is offering free EpicMix Racing runs at all Vail, Breckenridge, Keystone and Northstar Resorts from December 15-21st. Guests of all ages, abilities and disciplines can test out EpicMix Racing for free all week. EpicMix Racing will open for the season at Beaver Creek and Heavenly Resorts on Dec. 22nd.
The Company has also created the Lindsey Vonn Race Series, in which all skiers and riders of all ages will be ranked based on their best 10 races of the season. The top racers from across the six resorts will be invited to a grand finale event on March 30, 2012, hosted by Vonn on the world-famous Birds of Prey World Cup Course at Beaver Creek. Vonn also will provide race tips throughout the season, which will be featured on the web and mobile applications.
To support Vonn's commitment to giving back to the skiing community for future generations, Vail Resorts will donate one percent of all revenue from EpicMix Racing to create scholarships at Ski & Snowboard Club Vail and other ski racing clubs at its resorts for aspiring young ski racers.
Vonn will bring her passion for racing and online sharing to the EpicMix community by providing tips on howto have an effective start, how to have an effective finish, technique, skiing an early line, running gates, recreational racing, body positioning and equipment care. These tips will be featured onwww.epicmix.com.
EpicMix Racing courses will be located at Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Keystone in Colorado and Heavenly and Northstar in Lake Tahoe. EpicMix Racing will be available at Kirkwood for the 2013-2014 season.
How it will work:
- EpicMix Racing courses will be located on intermediate trails at the resorts in comparable locations as they are today and designed to be fun and challenging but not intimidating for skiers, snowboarders and telemarkers of all ages.
- Guests can ski right up to the start gate and quickly purchase and register for their races using cash, their credit card or resort charge with either their season pass or daily lift ticket. Guests will no longer have to go inside or fill out paper forms.
- Beginning December 22nd at all resorts, EpicMix Racing will cost $8 for the first race and $4 for each additional race for the remainder of the ski and snowboard season. Purchased races are good at all Vail Resorts.
- For each race, digital medals of gold, silver and bronze and racer will be awarded through the EpicMix application, based upon the skier’s age, gender and discipline. Kids will also earn physical medals after each race.
- EpicMix Racing will compare each racer’s time to the time set by Lindsey Vonn and assign each racer a “percentage behind Lindsey” score based on age, gender and discipline for each race. Digital medals are awarded based on a racer’s “percentage behind Lindsey.”
- EpicMix Racing will be integrated into user’s EpicMix dashboards and will feature a special EpicMix Racing section to track your overall race times, points and medals on
- Vail Resorts guests can also see how their results stack up against other skiers on their EpicMix leader boards and can share their racing accomplishments with their social networks.
- Racers of all ages are eligible to participate in the Lindsey Vonn Race series.
About EpicMix
EpicMix launched in 2010 and experts called it a “game changer” and “one of the mostridiculously cool …” mobile strategies. Six months after it debuted, it won a “People’s Voice”Webby award in the Experimental and Innovation category for mobile devices. When the Company launched EpicMix Photo in 2011, experts again lauded the social media application for changing thevacation photo business, proclaiming that “the days of heading to the photo center and searching through hundreds of photos of strangers and their kids is over”.
The true innovation with EpicMix is that the app and online site allows guests to selectively share stats and information via Twitter and Facebook without requiring skiers or snowboarders to do anything different other than enjoy their skiing and snowboarding experience. Instead of manual check-ins, the RF-enabled pass or ticket allows for automatic check-ins at each lift at all six resorts, which then tracks the vertical feet and rewards guests for accomplishments like riding every lift in one day to earn the Conqueror pin.
Nearly 100,000 guests activated their EpicMix accounts in the 2010-2011 ski and snowboard season which equated to a 15-percent adoption rate. Last year with EpicMix photo more than 200,000 additional guests activated accounts and shared more than two million posts on their social networks.
How to get EpicMix
EpicMix is available to all Vail Resorts guests at any of its seven world-class mountain resorts–Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone, Heavenly, Northstar and Kirkwood–who purchase any lift ticket or season pass this year. Almost every ticket and pass will be enabled with RF technology and allow guests to participate in EpicMix. EpicMix Photo and EpicMix Racing will not be available at Kirkwood this ski season.
Privacy
The safety and privacy of guests is the highest priority for Vail Resorts and no information collected through EpicMix will be shared unless a guest “opts in” and specifically chooses to share their information. All information collected through EpicMix is subject to the strict privacy policies of Vail Resorts. Guests can choose to disable the RF chip in their pass to prevent any scanning. Children under 13 participating in EpicMix will have limited features and a connection only to a family account based on parental approval.
For more information, visit www.epicmix.com.
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 resorts of Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Keystone in Colorado, and Heavenly, Northstar and Kirkwood 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.