MAP MOGUL:

There's good chance that any time you slide off the top of a chairlift, you'll be faced with James Niehues's work. The 72-year-old Coloradan has hand-painted the maps used by more than 200 ski resorts. But skiing's most prolific artist says he stumbled into it by luck. In 1987, Niehues had just moved to Denver from Grand Junction, Colorado. He had a couple of kids, and he was looking for work as a graphic designer after his work at an auto-parts manufacturer dried up. He reached out to local artist Bill Brown, who gave him a one-off job working on the trail map for Winter Park's Mary Jane Mountain. Brown, who was the only resort-map artist at the time, was looking to retire, and he passed the ski-map mantle on to Niehues. 

Aside from ideal timing, Niehues says he thinks he has an innate ability to see a whole mountain in one shot. We'd have to agree--his maps are incredibly accurate, down to the parking lots, but with a nostalgic wash of pastel color that's instantly recognizable. 

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