When skiers lower the bar on Deer Valley chairlifts this season, they’ll notice a new addition to help them explore the mountain: an intricate terrain map, painstakingly created by artist Rad Smith.
Smith gave up his full-time environmental consulting job about six years ago. Now, instead of spending his days behind a screen, he paints maps for ski resorts across the country.
Painting Deer Valley, including the East Village expansion that’s doubling the size of the resort, was an unusually large project for Smith.
“The painting itself took about 70 hours, but the whole process was more like 150 hours total, spread out over a number of months – four or five months total,” he told KPCW.
Smith, who lives in Bozeman, Montana, used aerial photographs of Deer Valley to capture every detail, from the curve of each hillside to the shade of the trees. He mostly uses opaque watercolors to bring the maps to life.
He said mapmaking involves a careful blend of art and science, creating a wayfinding tool that also reflects the beauty of a place people know and love.
“I think the hardest part, especially a map that size, is making sure that you’re giving credit to the runs that need to be shown in the distance,” he said. “If they’re falling kind of away from the viewer, you have to bend that reality and still make it believable to the viewer.”
Smith learned from the renowned ski resort mapmaker James Niehues, who recently retired.
“It’s pretty amazing to be in touch with someone that has that much talent and proficiency in the painting world, and it can be a little overwhelming, because he sets such a high bar with his paintings and his trail map work,” he said. “It gives me something to constantly aim for and shoot for.”
Smith said in a world where people increasingly rely on screens and digital technology, hand-painted maps can be a reminder to slow down and simply enjoy the natural world.
“We ski to be out in nature and to kind of get away from that digital world, nowadays,” he said. “I think it’s just something that people want to look at for a longer period, and it’s kind of a treasure map and makes you want to go out and explore. I don’t know that we always get that with the digital maps in this day and age.”
Deer Valley opened for the season Dec. 5. The Silver Lake, Sterling and Quincy chairlifts feature Smith’s map, as do the large wayfinding boards around the resort.
Deer Valley Resort is a financial supporter of KPCW.
