If he just ended the partnership, no one would have cared. That’s well within his right as a businessowner. Maybe you even thank them for their support over the last 10 years to be polite, but it’s not necessary. This is common sense. Basic decency.

No, what the owner of Black Mountain did was talk shit about everyone involved, including other local small business owners. Business partnerships fall through all the time. Only a real trashy asshole rants on Facebook and slanders everyone involved. Conversely, the other parties handled it graciously. Killed him with kindness.

It doesn’t really matter what the real story is. Whether people were skinning without a pass, or BYOB to the nighttime race. You just don’t do that. Especially when the partnership was so long standing and it was all locals.

There’s been a lot of mountains that have stopped allowing uphill travel for various reasons. No one wants a ski area to ban it, but it’s well within their rights. I can’t think of any other owner that’s handled it so poorly and made it so personal and nasty, because only a crazy person would do that.