Oct. 25--With its stock near an all-time low, Vail Resorts Inc. has pushed cost-cutting to a new extreme: President Andrew P. Daly will be out of work Nov. 1. His position has been eliminated. 

"Given the difficult external climate in the entire U.S. travel industry and the U.S. economy, as well as the prospects of war and terrorism, the company must evaluate every position to ensure that every employee is in a necessary role," Vail Resorts chairman Adam Aron said in announcing the departure of Daly, 56, a 31-year veteran of the ski industry -- the past 13 years at Vail. 

"If sacrifice is required for Vail Resorts to prosper, then that sacrifice will take place fairly up and down the line, including at the highest levels of the company," he added. 

The company's stock closed Wednesday at $14.16 per share, up 41 cents from Tuesday's announcement time, but well below its all-time high of $31.25 on March 26, 1998. 

Vail Resort's announcement is another sign of the financial difficulties affecting the entire ski industry. Skier visits nationally declined 5.5 percent this past season. At Vail Resort's four Colorado resorts, skier visits last winter went down 4.3 percent to 4.7 million. 

Utah's 14 resorts, by contrast, reported just under 3 million skier days last winter, a drop of 9 percent from the 2000-01 season. 

Daly entered the industry in 1971 as a ski patroller at Aspen Highlands. The next year he moved to Copper Mountain, eventually becoming its president. He leased Eldora ski resort for two years before joining Vail Associates in 1989. 

Daly led the company out of bankruptcy three years later and in 1996 became president of Vail Resorts, which through a merger with Ralcorp Holdings also acquired three other Colorado ski resorts -- Breckenridge, Keystone and Arapahoe Basin. 

Vail Resorts also owns Heavenly resort in California and Nevada, Grand Teton Lodge Co. in Jackson Hole, Wyo., and Rock Resorts, which has 10 luxury resort hotels in the United States. 

Daly told The Denver Post that he is unlikely to stay in the ski industry. "I've done just about everything I can do in this business . . . This is an opportunity not many people get in their careers, to really step back and have the time and financial security to really look at what I'm going to do next. Really, it's a blessing in disguise." 

-----To see more of The Salt Lake Tribune, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.sltrib.com 

(c) 2002, The Salt Lake Tribune. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. MTN,