But people here say the conflict is more complicated than a tale of a tiny local resort facing off against a wintertime Goliath. In addition to running Park City Mountain, the Powdr Corporation operates eight ski resorts across the country, including in Vermont, Colorado and Nevada. It filed a lawsuit against Talisker, seeking $7 million in damages and arguing that it had made a good-faith effort to renew the lease and was being kicked out after decades because of a harmless error.

“It’s draconian,” said Alan Sullivan, a lawyer for Park City Mountain. “The delay in our side’s providing notice was insignificant. It didn’t cause anyone any harm. And basically the penalty is the forfeiture of over $100 million in investment.”

Park City Mountain does not plan to go quietly. If forced to leave, the ski resort said it would take its snow-making equipment, the ski lifts and almost anything else it owned that was not fixed to the ground.

In addition, the resort has pointed out that it still owns the front door onto the mountain. Anyone who wants to ski on the terrain would have to cross its base area or park in its lots to get to the slopes. Mr. Sullivan also said that Park City Mountain owned water rights that were critical for early-season snow-making.

“It would be impossible for Vail or anybody else who comes on the property to make snow,” he said.

As the dispute deepened, both companies took their case to the public, arguing their points in letters and articles in the newspaper The Park Record, each side trying to present its position as the reasonable solution. “We offered to meet with you on numerous occasions last fall,” Vail’s chief executive, Rob Katz, wrote in an open letter to Park City Mountain’s chief, “and you said you were not interested.”