Contact: Troy Hawks
NSAA Communications
(720) 963-4215
thawks@nsaa.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Snowbird CEO Richard Bass Honored with Lifetime Achievement Award

MARCO ISLAND, Fla. – May 24, 2006 – Richard D. Bass, chairman and CEO of Utah’s Snowbird Ski & Summer Resort today was awarded the National Ski Area Association’s (NSAA) Lifetime Achievement Award at its National Convention and Tradeshow at the Marriott Marco Island Resort Golf Club & Spa. Each year the award recognizes an individual who has demonstrated an extraordinary commitment to the ski industry. Bass will be honored for a career in the ski industry that began in 1962 and flourishes today with his ownership of Snowbird Ski & Summer Resort in Utah.

Bass’ lifelong involvement in the ski industry began in 1962 when he invested as one of the original limited partners in the Vail Ski Resort development in Colorado. Since then, he has served on the Board of Directors of Vail Associates Inc., assisted with Vail’s development of the Beaver Creek Ski Resort under his brother, Harry Bass Jr., and owned stock in the Aspen Ski Corporation and the Alta Ski Lifts Company.

Bass began work on his greatest achievement, Snowbird, in October 1969 and had the first lifts turning by December 1971. Bass has since overseen the continued growth of Snowbird into a world-renowned, year-round destination mountain resort, dedicated to the enhancement of Body, Mind and Spirit. SKIING Magazine has ranked Snowbird, along with Little Cottonwood Canyon neighbor Alta, the No. 1 ski resort in the United States for four years running.

In April 1985, at age 55, Bass became the oldest person to reach the top of Mount Everest and the first to climb the highest peak on each of the seven continents. His adventures are chronicled in the book he authored, “Seven Summits.”

 THE NATIONAL SKI AREAS ASSOCIATION, LOCATED IN LAKEWOOD, COLO., IS A TRADE ASSOCIATION FORMED IN 1962 FOR SKI AREA OWNERS AND OPERATORS NATIONWIDE.

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