It was a brilliantly sunny Saturday morning when I opened the door to meet Allison Buttner last week. I was about to shake hands with the only female terrain parks manager in Vermont, and I couldn’t develop a clear image of what I was about to see.
I’ve met a lot of terrain parks managers over the years. The role is typically held by burly, goateed and/or heavily whiskered men who thrive in the driver’s seat of heavy machinery. They have names like Gaitor, and Rosey, and Dennis. They wear torn up, paint-splattered snow pants. They play hard and ride harder.
SHATTERED STEREOTYPE
I knocked and heard a muffled voice and entered. As my eyes adjusted to the orange light pouring into her office, a reformatted ticket sales booth at the base of Bolton Valley, I found a super-friendly, stylish-looking girl rising from her office chair. There was no gruffness, no heavy metal playing on the stereo, and DEFINITELY no goatee.
“Don’t let the slight, 5-foot frame and dark, doe-like eyes fool you, Stafford,” I thought to myself. “This chick’s got a huge metal rake leaning in the corner and she knows how to use it.”
I glanced down. There were a few tears in the cuff of her pants and paint was splattered all over her boots. Yup, she’s definitely a terrain parks manager.
I hung out with Allison in the Progression Park for a little while. She filled me in on her upbringing in the shadows of Killington Mountain, a dreamworld of Wonka-like proportions for a child during the winter but a pretty boring place in the summer. It was in Killington’s growing park scene that she developed a kinship with terrain parks while she worked as a ski instructor. She decided to stay in the Green Mountain state when she graduated high school, heading to UVM to major in English and continue ski instructing at Sugarbush. When a “park crew” was finally created to manage the parks at Sugarbush, Allison realized she was not just the only female on the crew… she was the only one on the crew, period.
That’s when she decided to migrate north to Bolton. Within a few years, the position of terrain parks manager opened. She plainly told the Mountain Manager, “I want that job.” She got it.
BEING THE BOSS
Allison’s day at Bolton starts around 8am. She meets up with the 5 men she manages on the park crew and they all get to work repairing takeoffs and landings and making sure all the features are safe. Ongoing park maintenance takes up most of the day, and if things aren’t too crazy she sits down to update the Bolton Parks blog with quips, musings and photos. As the day winds down, she gives the night crew their assignments and fills the groomers in on the plan. Then she heads home to her fiancé at their place in downtown Burlington.
And what does Allison Buttner do for fun in her spare time? She plays poker with a bunch of dudes (who probably have goatees and names like Gaitor). “I’ve taken their money a few times,” she told me.
After fixing a downed rope-fence in the Butterscotch park, Allison took for me for a run up Wildreness Peak, a treat for this busy girl who’s usually in the parks all day. The snow was spectacular and the weather was perfect. We shook hands and parted ways at the bottom as she trotted off to a snow-plan meeting with all the mountain executives.
Thank you, Allison, for completely shattering my image of a Vermont terrain parks manager. May your boots always be paint-splattered and your snow rake never dull.
-Luke
