It’s a treasure map of sorts. It leads to a bounty of 80 ski runs and seven new lifts at Park City’s Deer Valley Ski Resort.
The details that will lead skiers to the new mother lode of runs are painstaking and hand-painted. Rad Smith should know; it took him untold hours of research and 70 hours at an easel to create Deer Valley’s new terrain map.
“I think in this day in age, skiers love history,” he said. “We all are so used to looking at Google Maps and digital maps on our phones that looking at one that's been hand-painted is kind of a breath of fresh air.”
Smith, a skier, cartographer, illustrator and self-proclaimed “topographical dreamer, ” lives in Bozeman, Montana. He actually got his start making digital maps in the environmental and resource consulting community. That allowed him to learn more about map-making, and in his free time, he fell in love with the art of ski maps.
“One thing kind of led to another, and I had some great opportunities to work with some ski areas and get back to what I love. It got me away from the computer, and I started drawing and painting again.”
His big break came when he contacted world-renowned ski mapmaker James Niehues, who retired back in 2021. At that point, Niehues didn’t have anyone to pass his brush on to.
“I reached out with an email just to kind of introduce myself. From there, we started a really neat friendship, and he mentored me.”
That development eventually led to a phone call from Deer Valley asking if he’d create their new map. It was a daunting prospect at first, Smith said, but he was able to expand the work that James Niehues created.
“I was familiar with James’ maps that were representing the ski area at the time, and I really had a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that Deer Valley was more than doubling its footprint,” he said. “The resort pretty much has skiing on 360 degrees of different aspects. So everything just takes longer with a project that big and trying to figure out how to fit it all in.”
To help assemble the puzzle, he consulted ski patrollers and resort managers, and skied existing runs. He also pored over Deer Valley’s master plan, aerial photography and drone footage before he headed to the studio over his garage in Bozeman.
.@Deer_Valley dropped their new terrain map for 2025-26. It was a challenge to paint 100 new ski runs + 10 new chairlifts into a seamless landscape with their already impressive terrain footprint. It was the honor of a lifetime to paint Deer Valley’s bright future. #SkiUtah pic.twitter.com/7WufLc1TR7
— Rad Smith (@RadSmithSki) October 20, 2025
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Pamela McCall: What was your painting process when you sat down in your studio?
Rad Smith: I start with basic line drafts, just to communicate the angle of view that I'm going to attempt to take to show the perspective. I use a digital projector, and I project that sketch onto the final painting substrate. And then I start painting, and I paint from top to bottom.
PM: What’s the trickiest part of hand-painting ski maps?
RS: Every step has its challenges from start to finish, but painting the trees is tough because the struggle is in the details and the trees take a lot of time. It’s also tough for me to be inside and sitting for the long hours needed to get it all right.
PM: How do you meld science and art together when creating these maps?
RS: Map-making has kind of a root in science and the accuracy of depicting a place, topography and terrain. And the art side of it, obviously, is the drawing and the painting and creating. I kind of see ski maps as landscape art, landscape paintings, but they're more than that. They have to be accurate and believable for the viewer to not only recognize a place, but also use it as a wayfinding tool to get around. In my mind, that's kind of the beauty of ski maps. They do combine a little bit of art and science.
PM: What’s the future for hand-painted maps in the world of artificial intelligence?
RS: It’s a big concern, but I’m hopeful ski resorts will recognize the difference as AI could use my work and that of James Niehues for future maps. I feel that the ones created by humans are nostalgic and a breath of fresh air in this day and age so I hope the tradition continues.
PM: What will it be like to ski down the new terrain you mapped for the first time?
RS: That’s an excitement that’s hard to explain. Skiing the new terrain and riding the new chairlifts will be thrilling. I can’t wait to get out there.
