Vail Resorts says given the climate in the US travel industry and economy, as well as prospects of war and terrorism, it must evaluate every position to ensure that every employee is necessary. The times require the company to operate as lean as possible, while still taking care of its guests and "living up to the world-class reputations of our resorts."

"I want to stress that Andy's separation from Vail Resorts is not for performance reasons, but rather because we feel our company will operate better if it does so with a lower cost structure, and to the extent possible, with fewer layers of management," Adam Araon, Vail Resorts chairman and CEO tells employees in an internal memo.

Daly has been president of Vail Resorts and Vail Associates for 10 years. He was paid $2.6 million by Vail Resorts in fiscal 2001, according to SEC documents. He received a salary of $428,100, a bonus of $80,000 and $2.1 million from the sale of stock options.