Video: Sketching the Slopes with Jim Niehues

If you're anything like me, the ski area trail map will bring back some fond memories. As a kid, I had no home mountain. My parents embraced the road trip and at every stop along the way, I would pick up a trail map and pore over it; looking for whatever nook might hold the best snow, or trying to judge the steepest run. Never once did I consider how that trail map I so lovingly stuffed in my pocket came to be.

Per GBS: "When you're strapping on your bindings and preparing to hit the slopes, you probably aren't focusing on the artistry that goes into ski maps. But for Jim Niehues, that's life. The ski map artist paints every tree, shadow and mountain peak on trail maps for some of the world's major ski resorts. Thirty years ago, Jim decided to start a career as a ski map artist. Now, nearly 200 maps later, he still loves guiding people down mountains."
  Now that's a pretty cool job.