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Comment by convenwis | Hacker News Reader

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.

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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.

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.

I love that route to the summit :)

That lift exit at the top is a blast.

OpenStreetMap has ski trails. OsmAnd even has a ski routing engine. Also checkout https://mapcomplete.org/ski

Quick plug for https://pistepal.app/ - that's my own contribution to the space. Features location sharing and nav/directions, and priced lower than the competition yet with perhaps a richer / more focussed feature set. Interested to hear feedback and ideas!

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.

Oh, I love paper maps. Snowbird is trying to get rid of the paper maps and it drives me nuts. They still print a few but mostly you can't get them on the mountain. Seems like a totally misguided environmental idea.

Every lift at Snowbird has the map printed on the bar. So you can plan your route on the way up. I agree that when you get lost, that map won't save you, but I think an offline PDF is also fine.

Absolutely not true lol. I dont think any of their lifts have maps on them right now. The maps also arent super helpful at snowbird because the cliffs often come out of nowhere

Wait, really? I haven't been up this season, but it's always been there! I understand removing the printed ones when the bars have them (and the big boards at the top). Is it all just ads now?

None of the bars have anything printed on them now if I remember correctly. I have a pass and have been around 10 times this season. At least they all have footrests unlike alta where they love foot pain

There are dedicated GPS units that are glove operable, leashable, and support topo maps.

(Year added above. Thanks!)

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