LUDLOW, Vt. – Despite a $500,000 breakup offer from American Skiing Co., Okemo Mountain President Timothy Mueller will head to Colorado this week to discuss with lawyers the next step in his thwarted bid to buy Steamboat Ski Area in Colorado.

Mueller said Wednesday a $500,000 offer from American Skiing to cover the costs of the aborted sales contract was insufficient.

“It is multiples of the $500,000 number,” Mueller said. “I don’t know what our costs and expenses are exactly, or what the damages are at this point.”

Timothy and Diane Mueller, along with a group of investors mainly from Steamboat Springs called Triple Peaks LLC, had signed an agreement in late January to buy the ski area for $91.4 million.

American Skiing officials said Tuesday they decided to sell the Heavenly Ski Resort in California instead.

“Nobody with any ethics, nobody, on the day of the closing, do you call it off,” Mueller said. “We don’t think this is the normal way to do business, and [it’s] why corporate America gets a bad reputation.”

Mueller said he is seriously considering his legal options. He has to act by Thursday, according to his Steamboat contract.

“I’m not 100 percent sure yet; we’re still talking to our attorneys to discuss the best thing,” Mueller said. “But we will act very soon. We’ve got to do something.”

In addition to Steamboat and Heavenly, American Skiing owns Killington and Mount Snow in Vermont; Sunday River and Sugarloaf USA in Maine; Attitash Bear Peak in New Hampshire; and The Canyons in Utah. The Muellers, through a lease with the state, also operate Mount Sunapee in New Hampshire.

In Colorado, the news that American Skiing was staying on was met with mixed emotions, according to Steamboat Springs City Manager Paul Hughes.

“I don’t think the community has any great animosity toward American Skiing,” Hughes said. “But there was a belief that Tim and Diane had great plans for Steamboat. The local community is just confused.”

“The biggest question I’ve heard from people is, ‘Can they do that?”‘ Hughes said.