Located at the premier ski destination resort of Beaver Creek® in Colorado, The Ritz-Carlton, Bachelor Gulch will include a 238-room hotel and an exclusive members� lounge for the Bachelor Gulch Club. The property will also feature a 20,000-square-foot spa and fitness center, ski rental, lesson and retail space, restaurants plus meeting space. Twenty-three privately owned luxury penthouse residences are also being built above the hotel. All twenty-three of these penthouses are already under contract and owners will have full access to the amenities and services of The Ritz-Carlton.

�We are very excited about The Ritz-Carlton, Bachelor Gulch�, commented Aron. �This project will greatly enhance the experience for our guests by adding a prestigious hotel property to Beaver Creek, and consequentially offers a very sound investment opportunity for Vail Resorts.� In return for contribution of land carried at $3.4 million book value, $3.3 million cash equity, and up to a $4.5 million interest-bearing loan to the venture, Vail Resorts will acquire 49% of the hotel joint venture. Construction of the entire hotel project is expected to cost approximately $162 million. In order to cover construction costs, the joint venture is obtaining $97 million in debt financing from a syndicate of banks. The remainder is being funded by a combination of equity and debt contributed by the partners, mezzanine financing, and the sale of condominiums.

Under the terms of the joint venture, Vail Resorts will provide golf, spa and club privileges for a fee of $3.7 million. The Company will receive $3 million up front and $0.7 million as penthouse residences close. The penthouse owners will have use of the Bachelor Gulch Club, including Zach�s Cabin, the luxury on-mountain restaurant built in 1999. The penthouse owners, as well as all the hotel guests, will be able to access the Red Sky Ranch golf community, which will feature two new 18-hole championship courses designed by Tom Fazio and Greg Norman respectively once all approvals are received. Construction of the Fazio course, located 10 miles west of Bachelor Gulch, began in the spring of 2000 and the course is projected to open in the summer of 2002.

Separately, the Company will contract with the hotel joint venture for Vail Resorts to acquire the 20,000-square-foot spa, plus 8,500 square feet of skier services area, at the developer�s cost of approximately $13 million. The majority of this expense will be recouped through membership sales in the Bachelor Gulch Club.

Adjacent Development of Interval ownership Condominiums

Aron also announced that a contract for the development of interval ownership condominiums, to be situated immediately adjacent to the hotel, was also signed.

Current plans feature approximately 54 multi-week interval units, with an estimated completion date in late 2002. Vail Resorts will not have an ownership stake in the interval project.  However, the Company will receive $8 million for the sale of land, carried at $2.2 million book value, on which the interval ownership condominiums will sit. $4.5 million of this will be received at the time of the land conveyance, which is expected to close by October 30, and $3.5 million will be received as interval ownership condominiums close over the next several years.

Under the terms of the agreement, Vail Resorts will provide ski, golf and club privileges for a fee of $6.5 million, to be received as interval ownership condominiums close, and annual dues of approximately $1 million per annum in current dollars. While in residence, the interval owners will have use of the Bachelor Gulch Club, Ritz-Carlton amenities, spa facilities, and the Red Sky Ranch golf community.

Vail Resorts, Inc. is the premier destination mountain resort operator in North America. The company�s subsidiaries operate the Colorado resorts of Vail, Breckenridge, Keystone®, and Beaver Creek, as well as the Grand Teton Lodge Company in Jackson, Wyoming. 

Statements in this press release, other than statements of historical information, are forward looking statements that are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.