[HN Gopher] Ski map artist James Niehues, the 'Monet of the moun...
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Ski map artist James Niehues, the 'Monet of the mountains' (2021)
Author : gyomu
Score : 92 points
Date : 2026-01-10 22:58 UTC (4 days ago)
(HTM) web link (adventure.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (adventure.com)
| convenwis wrote:
| This is from a few years ago. Apparently he retired:
| https://www.kuer.org/arts-culture-entertainment/2021-10-22/j...
|
| Since I've been skiing this has been how I've experienced all the
| terrain. His maps just are skiing to me. But, interestingly, with
| the rise of smartphones/gps apps like Slopes and the late
| lamented Fatmap have started to move the ski world towards 3d
| terrain maps and away from these artistic maps.
|
| I have a side project I've been meaning to dust off that
| translated GPS coordinates to locations on Niehues maps. I got it
| working reasonably well but the distortions were significant
| enough that it needs a _lot_ of control points to do the mapping.
| dang wrote:
| (Year added above. Thanks!)
| browningstreet wrote:
| I hope and believe that a screen map can't ever compete with
| the size of printed maps and the big boards they have on runs.
|
| There's also something functionally superior to having someone
| who created an aesthetic and standard across ski maps.. someday
| they'll evolve and we'll have something different, but being
| able to show up to a new ski mountain and immediately
| understand the map: it's excellent UX.
| asdff wrote:
| The only issue I've ever had with trail maps is my first time
| at Mammoth. For those who aren't familiar, there is actually
| a sort of valley between the first set of chair lifts and
| then the summit, so you can't actually go from say the summit
| to the top of high five express lift even though it looks
| like perhaps you can, you have to go around this front ridge
| then work your way to the top of the high five express lift.
| On the trail map painting, this ridge is pretty subtle and
| hard to appreciate without already knowing about it.
| asdff wrote:
| I hate using my phone while snowboarding. Between the cold and
| the often lack of service the battery sinks like a stone on the
| slopes to the point where I have to use it sparingly or risk
| losing communication with other people on the mountain. So
| risky to pull the phone out on lift too. I've known people who
| dropped it there and then it's gone forever. Pinch and zoom
| would suck in the cold too. I'll take the free trailmap I can
| unfold with my mittons on any day.
| reconnecting wrote:
| I think it's wrong to mention ski maps without crediting Pierre
| Novat (1), perhaps the original creator of this style (2) since
| 1962. But what is more important is that Novat actually took the
| work of Heinrich Berann (3) for Val d'Isere (4) and amended it
| that result is what we know as ski maps today.
|
| There is some debate about who was first, Berann or Novat, but
| either way, this was 40 years before James Niehues from the
| article even started working in this style.
|
| 1. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Novat (FR)
|
| 2. http://tropfragile.free.fr/galerie/Photos.html
|
| 3. https://www.berann.com/panorama/
|
| 4. https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Left-of-the-dashed-
| line-...
| mikeocool wrote:
| I bought the book of his work that was on kickstarter a few years
| ago, because ski maps are something I've always kind of loved.
|
| Honestly it was a little disappointing -- the maps in the book
| are just the paintings of the mountains/terrain, no
| trail/lift/amenity markings, and thumbing threw it for a little
| while, they all kind of look exactly the same.
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(page generated 2026-01-14 23:00 UTC)