It was a pretty easy operating season for Pats Peak Ski Area this past winter, according to the general manager – except for the weather, getting supplies, dealing with COVID-19, and hiring enough labor. And maybe some other things that didn’t come up during the interview.
“It was a struggle to piece together food and beverage at times. Normally we’d have tried to run the snack hour a little more. Paper products were difficult to get, and all the food we provide,” said Kris Blomback, longtime manager of the Henniker ski area, ticking off items. “The weather was not optimal, although for the most part it did what southern New Hampshire is all about. … But the biggest headache this year was staffing.”
As an example: “We didn’t make as much snow on the weekends as we normally would have liked because those folks were busy operating lifts.”
The pandemic has been tough on ski areas which, like most customer-facing businesses, have struggled with supply chain issues and hiring and keeping staff. Folding in increasingly erratic weather and expectations from both local and out-of-town customers creates unique operation challenges that few other businesses face.
Pats Peak opened in early December as usual – unlike nearby rival Crotched Mountain, which suffered from employment and other issues that hurt many areas owned by Vail Resorts and didn’t really open until around Christmas – and it ran all lifts every weekend.
But there were still struggles, such as a surge in interest that overwhelmed staff and forced the mountain to return to the reservation-only ticket sales that had operated during the pandemic emergency.
And there were varying COVID protocols to deal with, much to some customers’ dismay.
“Some people would yell at us over masks, while others wouldn’t go indoors at all,” said Blomback. “The broad range of people out in society, that same range is skiing our slopes.”
Overall, Blomback estimated that ticket sales were down slightly compared to last year. Tubing was down as were single-ticket sales but season passes were up and all-important learn-to-ski programs returned strong.
Pats Peak is making two big improvements this summer. It is building a wedding plaza in front of the lodge that in winter will provide outdoor pavilion seating – the wedding business is very strong this year due to pent-up demand, Blomback said – and building a six-bay maintenance facility as a new operations center.
“People won’t see that,” Blomback said of the operations facility, “but it will make a big difference.”
