The passing of Wayne Patenaude, one of the four brothers who started Pats Peak ski area in 1962, earlier this month marks the end of an era for the Henniker, N.H., resort but doesn’t signal changes from family ownership.
“Nothing is changing,” said Kris Blombak, general manager at the resort, which opened full-time for the season on Friday, Dec. 12. “The family is very happy with the operation as is.”
Wayne Patenaude died Dec. 4 at age 87 after a period of declining health. His son, Rick Patenaude, has replaced him as president of the family trust that owns the resort.
“He has been effectively the president for the past few years,” Blombak said.
Pats Peak is one of the very few commercial ski areas in New England that is still independently owned by the family that started it, although the Patenaudes have kept relatively low profiles. “They’re a quintessential Yankee family, they just go about their thing,” Blombak.
Wayne Patenaude grew up in Henniker and graduated from Henniker High School, after which he bought Contoocook Artesian Well Company.
Wayne Patenaude in 1957.
Many ski areas were being opened in New England the sport enjoyed a post-World War II boom. The four Patenaude brothers — Joe, David, Wayne and Stuart — decided that the land their father, Merle, owned on Craney Hill could join them.
Four trails and two slopes, spanning 613 vertical feet, were cleared with some of the timber used for constructing a 30-by-80-foot lodge uphill from the present day base area.
New England Ski History quotes a Monitor story in which Merle looked back on the work, discussing his sons’ efforts: “They laid out their own trails, did their own surveying and cutting. They installed the steel towers needed for the chairlift and T-Bars. They ran the bulldozers, graded, backfilled — performed every construction job there was until it was built.”
The area opened on January 5, 1963, with a double chairlift to the peak, followed the next year by a T-bar in the beginners’ area. The area had ski schools in its first year, according to the official history, and its school programs remain central to the business plan.
Snowmaking was added in 1972 and the current base lodge was built in 1968, with multiple expansions since.
The first trail map for Pats Peak in 1963.
The other brothers moved on and Wayne became president. He oversaw the ski area’s expansion into Cascade Basin a decade ago and the gradual shifting into more non-winter business such as weddings. The resort has more than 800 employees at the peak of winter season.
“He was my de facto board of directors, if you will,” said Blombak, who has been at Pats Peak for 34 years. “He was always keeping the company on the straight and narrow in terms of money, all those business things you take for granted that he’s done forever.”
Patenaude and his wife Sally also owned and operated Boulder Strawberry Farm in Hopkinton for a number of years. They were married 64 years.
In addition to Sally, he is survived by their children Sabrina, Nicole and Rick, four grandchildren and one great-grandchild, as well as his brother Stuart.
