Mountain Travel Symposium Announces Winners of Second-Annual Summit Award

The winners were announced during the MTS Forum on Wednesday, April 17, part of the week-long event being hosted in North Lake Tahoe, CA, from April 14-19, 2024. The award called for nominations of initiatives and programs that focused on corporate responsibility, aligning with United’s “Good Leads the Way” campaign. Nominations were received in the areas of employee advocacy, sustainability, DEI, community service and more.

“At United we’re committed to doing the right thing – for people, our planet, and communities we serve.” Said Brian Roth, Director Regional Sales – United Airlines. “Through the Summit Award, we’re honored to recognize organizations that go above and beyond to make an impact in the world.”

Vail Resorts’ Epic Wellness program was named a winner. Through Epic Wellness, Vail Resorts focuses on providing its employees with tools and resources focused on mental health prevention. The company does this through an expansive provider network for quality treatment, deep community partnerships, and a comprehensive and compassionate approach to crisis management. Epic Wellness offers free therapy for employees, their dependents, and household members—such as roommates—all available on day one of employment. Vail Resorts’ proactive efforts have resulted in a 12% utilization rate of clinical resources enterprise-wide, which is an increase from a 10% utilization rate in FY22, far above the national average of 5%.

“Epic Wellness works to expand access to mental health and promote de-stigmatization, not only for our team members, but for our mountain communities,” says Dr. Corey Levy, Director of Epic Wellness for Vail Resorts. “We strive to lean into these conversations while connecting team members and their families to resources. We know true progress will take all of us and we’re happy to continue our work alongside our amazing community partners. We are honored to receive this award—it is a testament to the importance of this work and our accomplishments over the last ten years.”

Also named a winner was SkiWelt Wilder Kaiser – Brixental. SkiWelt is one of the largest ski areas in the world—and also one of the greenest. For more than 20 years it has been operating with 100% renewable hydro-electric power. Throughout SkiWelt, there are 17 natural reservoirs, all perfectly integrated into the local fauna and flora, and this water is “recycled” for snowmaking. They are supplied mainly by snowmelt, rain and spring water. Solar energy has also been increasingly used in recent years, notably from 2008 on the Sonnenlift, one of the first completely solar-powered facilities in the world.

“Receiving the Summit Award at MTS is a great honor. It gives our SkiWelt team renewed incentive to continue to set the tone as pioneers in sustainability,” said Anita Baumgartner, Marketing Manager, SkiWelt Wilder Kaiser – Brixental. “Many small and large initiatives have made us strong, credible and successful over the years and we are all working together to become even better in this area.”

Ski Utah’s Discover Winter program received an honorable mention. Discover Winter is a learn- to-ski and snowboard program crafted for adults that was launched by Ski Utah in January 2022 to increase participation in and foster a lifelong love for winter sports within Utah’s growing multiracial population. Since its inception, Discover Winter has introduced 575 ethnically diverse Utah adults to skiing and snowboarding with 79% of participants introducing the sport to a friend or family member. Eighty-nine percent posted on their social channels. Ninety-four percent said they will continue to ski or snowboard into the future.

Winners were not only announced and awarded on stage, but they were given the opportunity to share their initiatives with the MTS audience. “The purpose of the MTS Summit Award is two-fold,” said Alicia Evanko-Lewis, Executive Vice President, Global Events, Northstar Travel Group. “These companies need to be recognized and commended for their incredible efforts. But it is also imperative that others in the mountain travel community learn about these initiatives and become inspired to follow in their footsteps.”

Next year, Mountain Travel Symposium will be held in Snowmass Village, CO April 7-13, 2025. For more information about the event, visit www.mtntrvl.com.