Wrightwood, CA – November 1, 2006: Mountain High made the leap to the Axess ticketing system this summer providing more dependable lift entry for guests and better in-house reporting for Mountain High staff. The system, designed in Austria, has become a standard at cutting-edge resorts such as Copper Mountain, Park City, & Solitude. Mountain High hopes to create a seamless transition between ticket checking and lift access with this new state-of-the-art technology.

Mountain High’s tickets are now 100% hands free. No ticket swiping or bar code scanning. The system simply translates a small radio signal produced by the ticket into an action, opening the gate when the ticket is valid or signaling the guest when it is not. This reduces fraud and all but eliminates negative confrontations between ticket checkers and guests. The back-end of the system is also extremely easy for Mountain High personnel to use. It is this part of the program that lets the resort create flexible ticket options, sell tickets online, and even provide guests with colorful records of their day on the mountain.

Mountain High sells two main types of tickets, the Flex Ticket and the Point Ticket. The Flex Ticket is available in any 4 or 8-Hour period. It gives guests the flexibility to arrive at their leisure and not worry about wasting a portion of their pass. Unlike tickets from other resorts, the time of the Flex Ticket doesn’t begin until the guests take their first run, so they are always guaranteed the full value. The Point Ticket offers even more flexibility. It is sold in groups of 200, 500 & 1,000 points and lets the guest choose the number of runs they wish to take per day. Similar to a debit card, the points are electronically deducted with each lift ride and unused points carry over through 2007/2008 season. The Point Ticket is also fully transferable, so it can be shared by family and friends. It is the perfect solution for guests with variable schedules and quickly becoming one of Mountain High’s more popular options.

Thanks to the integration between the Axess ticketing system and Mountain High’s website, some of these ticket options can be purchased online. Guests have the choice of redeeming their tickets at the ticket windows or purchasing a reusable lift-access card that can be encoded with almost any ticket option. This allows them to go straight to the lifts, and all pre-purchased tickets guarantee their reservation. The reusable ticket costs $5.00 but guests receive a $5.00 discount each additional time they use it, creating a strong affinity program for the resort.

Mountain High offers several ticket programs that make use of these reusable cards such as the Freedom Pass (anytime season pass), and the Express Pass. Guests with these cards can access their statistics on the resort’s website, mthigh.com. These include the number of days and dates visited, lifts ridden, and the vertical feet skied. They are also ranked against other Mountain High members, and the program calculates an average of how many more days they will have ride to become number one. The resort then awards the top 25 visitors with prizes, gift certificates, and custom Mountain High apparel.

From the guest’s point of view, the new Axess ticketing system will be a huge step forward. It is sleeker, smoother, and smarter than the old system, making their experience more agreeable. And, it offers a wealth of benefits that other resorts simply can’t touch. For more information, please contact John McColly, Director of Marketing, at (760) 316-7830 or john@mthigh.com.