The seventies molded the liability and cost of money for the ski business. By its end, steel cable "mitey mites", the dependable "B" series Pomagalski lift, and the Hall series 400, 500 and 1000 were the minimum methods uphill. Rope tows were replaced or rarely used.

With Mickey at age 75 years, the time had come. At the end of the 1979 ski season, the ropes stopped running. An effort to sell the ski area to Martin Crossley, would reach IDA funding problems. The land would be first leased and then later sold to Harry Jameson.

Mickey looks at a lifetime

With 43 years of continuous operation, what the brothers created rolled with change. They lived and saw what would become skiing as it is today. The simplicity of what they built, drew others to join-in, push the limits and lifted their imaginations. The fine operations in the southern tier now serve the ski population with chairlifts and snowmaking, the end all of years spent before holding frozen ropes and "praying for snow".