Vail Resorts Announces the EpicMix™ $100,000 Contest Winner
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BROOMFIELD, Colo. – February 25, 2011 – Vail Resortsannounced the $100,000 winner of the EpicMix™ cash prize. To celebrate the launch of EpicMix, Vail Resorts gave away an Epic Gift to one lucky guest selected at random on February 22, 2011. The exact amount of this special gift was set at $1 for each 30,000 of vertical feet skied by all skiers and riders across Vail, Breckenridge, Beaver Creek, Keystone and Heavenly mountains, from the opening of each resort to the day the EpicMix application goes live, up to a maximum of $100,000. Skiers and snowboarders were automatically entered into the drawing when they activated their EpicMix account and the engagement of Vail Resorts’ skiers and snowboarders with EpicMix quickly achieved the $100,000 prize level.
Marcus DeBergh, from Boulder, Colorado and now a student in Albany, New York, was the lucky Vail Resorts guest to win the EpicMix $100,000 cash prize.
"I found out with an email but I didn't quite believe it or three other emails until I pulled into the Vail parking garage," DeBergh said. “Yeah, it's for real. I'm so just taken aback."
The New York resident is a student in physician's assistant school and was in Vail this week for spring break. He lived in Boulder for the past seven years and has 15 day skied so far this season, all tracked through EpicMix. He's also racked up 213,924 vertical feet skied, 27 pins, and a total of 2,732 points. He said he didn't sign up for EpicMix because of the contest, rather, he thought it was a great way to check out his numbers throughout the season.
"I originally signed up just to try out the Mix and figured it was a no brainer to take all the guess work out of skiing," DeBergh said. "I guess this is the added bonus."
The first purchase DeBergh plans to make is his Epic Pass for next ski season.
“We’re thrilled to give away this epic cash prize to Marcus and excited that so many of our guests are using EpicMix this winter to digitally capture their ski experience at our world-class resorts,” said Rob Katz, chairman and chief executive officer of Vail Resorts. “EpicMix is a groundbreaking application that brings together the very real experiences of skiing and snowboarding and online expression in a seamless and hassle free way for our guests. We’re looking forward to more of our guests signing onto EpicMix and sharing their ski and snowboard vacations with friends and family.”
EpicMix the revolutionary new online and mobile application allows skiers and snowboarders to digitally capture and share their ski and ride experience at Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone and Heavenly. EpicMix automatically captures the activity of guests throughout each of its resorts by leveraging Vail Resorts’ state-of-the-art radio frequency (RF) scanners that have been installed at each of its 89 lifts across all five mountain resorts. An RF-enabled chip embedded in Vail Resorts’ season passes and PEAKS lift tickets automatically tracks guests’ lift rides, calculating vertical feet skied and days on the mountain, and recognizes special achievements and accomplishments by granting guests commemorative, collectible digital pins. EpicMix offers hundreds of digital pins for a multitude of unique experiences available at each resort.
EpicMix allows guests the choice to “opt in” and share their statistics and accomplishments through updates on Twitter and Facebook and guests can create special EpicMix leader boards with their Facebook friends. The free EpicMix mobile application, which guests can download to their iPhone, Android or other smart phone, will also alert guests when any of their Facebook friends are skiing and where they are on the mountain. The application also allows guests to send messages to their private groups of Facebook friends on the mountain and the mobile application provides trail and grooming information, snow and weather reports, as well as resort news and traffic updates.
EpicMix also has a special website for kids under the age of 14, which allows them to connect with their parents’ accounts, but has content designed specifically for them and unique pins only kids can earn. The kids’ site also will have special privacy restrictions. Parents can use EpicMix to track the lift rides of their kids in real time.
The privacy of Vail Resorts guests is of paramount importance to the Company 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 14 participating in Epic-Mix will have limited features and a connection only to their parents’ account.
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 mountain resorts in Colorado, and the Heavenly Ski Resort and Northstar-at-Tahoe Resort 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 across the United States and in the Caribbean. 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.