Ski Map USA

I found a site this evening for those of us who enjoy the fine art of ski resort trail maps, ArtisticTrailMaps.com – Ski Resort Posters. According to their about us page, they are located in Stowe, Vermont. These poster sized prints would look great in any ski cabin, private bar, man cave or office.

In addition to the posters they also supply glassware and greeting cards emblazened with your favorite ski resort trail maps, national parks and vintage ski photos. I will definitely be filing this in my bookmarks under “wants and desires”… hint, hint.

From what I can tell it looks like they have it going; large selection, secure payment methods and an easy to use shopping cart. Way to go ArtisticTrailMaps.com!

Chances are, you have come across a trail map with the signature of James Niehues at the bottom. According to wikipedia he has done 75% of all the large resorts. Working primarily in water color Niehues has made his mark on the Trail Map Industry in a big way.

Trail Maps are a challenging assignment for any artist, as they must represent; elevation changes, terrain features and prominent landmarks all while conveying a ton of detailed trail information. It seems as though its the ultimate Graphic Design meets Fine Art example.

From his website I found that he is currently taking his masterful skills to the web, which seems logical. I would really love to own an original Trail Map Painting of one of my hometown resorts, how cool would that be?

Playing around today, I ran into a site that makes 3D maps of Ski Resorts. It overlays the steepness of the hill with color gradient mapping. These 3dSkiMap’s look like really high tech topo-maps. It really creates a cool effect that you just don’t see in your run of the mill resort trail map.

I find it amazing that they have such a selection of maps, they have about 40 maps right now, spanning 8 states and even a couple resorts from Russia. I do have to say that they need to add my home town favorite Sierra at Tahoe.

The Mammoth Mountain trail map does not do it any justice. That hill is so large that its hard to capture the actual scale of it. I’ve probably spent about 20 days on that mountain and have yet to see all that it offers.

I do like the way that they offer a printable PDF, but really… who wants to print a trail map on printer paper.

The detail in the background of the trail map is unbelievable. I bet if you look closely you can see Yosemite.