Mio Mountain

Mio Mountain rose on the southwest edge of Mio, forming the south side of the Au Sable River valley. Charles Budesky opened the ski area in 1956, and through the 1970s and into the 1980s it was a center of winter life in the town. It had snowmaking, five electric tows and 18 runs, some 1,500 feet long, with 200 feet of vertical below a 1,286-foot summit; MWLSAP gives 250 feet, perhaps 200. Runs had names such as My-Oh-My and Jack Pine, and readers remember skiing at night under lights.^1,2

As Budesky's health failed, running the hill grew hard, though at 92 he still opened a run whenever the snow allowed. In 1997 he sold it to Dan and Cecilia Boyer, who opened it for two weekends in January 1998. Trouble keeping the tow ropes adjusted and health problems kept it from reopening. In 2016 Dan Boyer wrote that the area was not for sale and that reopening it would take a large investment.^1,2