i cound not see another post on this, but James Niehues the map man has started a kickstarter to fund his new book, all the trail maps he has ever made. Looks cool! https://www.kickstarter.com/project...4ub-rj5m8u5x-ZV0dodfrlmN0y0mubY6amtG9eOIfvf14
AU$ 69,155 pledged of AU$ 11,007 goal That's good, I've helped get a few ski books published, but he's raised 7 times what he wanted, so he doesn't need our money. Niehus seems to be the only artist who gets ski maps just right, so this book is likely to be an insight into the techniques he developed over a long career.
I pledged only to get a signed book, I’ll get it sent to my sister in the states and she can ship it home
In recent years, he's been posting updates for current projects on his Facebook page. Quite fascinating. He literally paints every tree!. My impression is that he's wanted to do a book for a while. The team that's working with him is very strong. Includes Jason Blevins, who has been writing about the ski industry for a long time. For those who haven't noticed that "James Niehues" can be found in the corner of most trail maps . . . http://scoutski.com/the-mountain-map-man
A bit. He considers himself an intermediate and sticks to groomers. One of the interviewers asked. Even though he's been doing these paintings for 30 years, it's something he started after having a different career path. The Kickstarter video is mostly him talking about about what he likes about the process and outcome.
Visitors to PNW resorts will be familiar with the work of the late Murray Hay of Calgary. He was a commercial artist in his 40s when approached by LL back in the 1970s for a trail map. Learnt to ski because of the work and became a passionate skier despite the late in life start. Interestingly he worked in acrylic rather than watercolours.
My book arrived today. Now to clear the coffee table where it will live. I get the impression that the book will turn out being very expensive as I may need to verify some of the drawings personally .
Got mine a few days ago. I'm having great fun going thru the book a little at a time. There is good text, along with bonus material. So more than just a collection of finished maps. One sections shows the complete process for Breckenridge. Also includes older versions in some cases. For instance, his original Alta map is facing the latest version. So can easily look at the differences.
I wonder how much longer painted then printed maps will be a thing? Will computer rendering take over? A mate of mine is involved in the printing of the trail maps in Australia The numbers are staggering. However . Most seem to end up in landfill
I keep and file every trail map and annual glossy resort booklet I get my paws on, although some resorts don't produce those glossy books any more. I can foresee the day when printed trail maps won't be distributed either, people will be expected to look at it on their phone.
Thats a long way off. Staff are generally expected to have a stash of them in their pockets to help answer guest questions on how to get around the mountain. Giving your guest the answer is much better service than telling them to look it up for themselves.
I noticed in wilderness sports, maps being printed on cloth for the first time, they looked really good and the cloth was high enough grade to clean goggles. point is I think we will see more alternatives like this or what maps are printed on.
Rooftop have printed some of their large scale maps on tough plastic for many years. Especially useful for checking things on the Bogong High Plains in rain or snow.
Manky maps. They’ve had them for MTB trails for a few years now. Great idea, so long as you can read them without glasses...where the zoom function on emaps comes in really handy
I’ve really enjoyed my bifocal sun / skiing glasses this year. Being able to read maps is one reason.
I met James Niehues in Mt Baw Baw of all places late 2017. Super nice guy and a really interesting man. Had a great chat. A little bit of hero worship on my behalf, but I stopped short of getting him to sign something for me. I regret not asking now.
I would probably have been the sort of gushy fan boy that all prominent people do their best to avoid, so congrats for retaining your dignity and being pleasant company for him. I doubt Baw Baw could afford his not inexpensive services, so I wonder what he was doing there?
That is a genuine surprise, a Niehues map for Baw Baw. Although I reckon a perpetually broke small resort with only 3 main lifts, 3 shorter lifts and a couple of carpets would have better use for the money, especially as they have a fairly good map already.
Reading a little of the book, it seems that early on one way he got business was to take the opportunity to divert the plane he was taking shots from to another resort nearby that had not engaged his services, then he could use that and some preliminary sketches to sell his services. He had drawn preliminary sketches for Breckenridge long before they actually engaged his services.
For a relatively small hill, the cost isn't that high. Or wasn't before he semi-retired. Especially if photos taken from the air can be supplied. My home hill Massanutten is under 100 acres and has a Niehues map, as does a small hill in the North Carolina mountains. A group raised enough money in donations to commission a map for Tuckerman's Ravine, a natural bowl in New Hampshire. Wasn't a huge sum as I remember. https://jamesniehues.com/collections/art/products/tuckermans-ravine
It's interesting that his stuff hasn't taken off in Europe. In the US / Canada / Australia / NZ, most of the major resorts have a Niehues map and as MarcNC pointed out, some smaller resorts have them as well. But Niehues maps of Europe are few and far between. Many of the trail maps for major resorts aren't very good and in a few instances, they're as clear as mud. I doubt it's a sense of Continental superiority making them unwilling to hire 'un Yankee', but perhaps the artist just prefers to work in English speaking countries, which would be quite understandable.
Hmm, I wonder if he visited all the NZ and Australia locations in person. For NZ there is far less detail in terms of individual tree-lined trails so perhaps easier to paint from photos taken by someone else. I know for Massanutten, he never visited. They provided aerial photographs. Not too hard for a small ski area to get enough viewpoints for him to get a good enough feel for the trails, combined with the topo map of the terrain. The only European map in the book is for Kopaonik in Serbia from 2009. There are lots of trees. Neihues did Portillo (2000) and Valle Nevada (2008) in Chile. Portillo is run by Americans so not much of surprise that they hired him.
He seemed to me to be a traveller. I'd say his done his fair share, perhaps not all but certainly a reasonable amount.
I have no doubt that if a client was willing to pay for his travel, he would be happy to spend as many hours on a plane as needed to cross an ocean. He's done a few paintings of Hawaii that are fantastic.
For updates, Niehues doesn't have to do the aerial photography himself. At least not now that he is semi-retired. For the updated version for Sun Peaks, someone else shot the photos. It was the fifth update. Sun Peaks put up a good overview of the update process for the version first used for 2019-20. https://www.sunpeaksresort.com/explore/stories-inspiration/the-making-of-a-trail-map
