James Niehues And Mad River Glen Partner, Surpassing Crowdfunding Goal For New Hand-Painted Map

Open Road Ski Company and legendary trail-map artist James Niehues (jamesniehues.com) have partnered with Mad River Glen (madriverglen.com) for a Kickstarter project to fund a striking all-new hand-painted image of the iconic mountain, with plans to use it for trail maps and mountain signs.

Building on the success of their Kickstarter-funded book, The Man Behind the Maps, Open Road Ski Company has turned toward crowd-sourced funding to raise money for new Mad River Glen trail maps and signs, with proceeds going to the Stark Mountain Foundation (starkmountain.org).

The Kickstarter campaign launched on September 3, 2020 and will finish on October 2, 2020 — the start of Mad River Glen’s Green and Gold weekend and the traditional kick-off to the ski season. In the first 36 hours of the campaign, the Kickstarter raised sufficient funds to back the painting and exceeded its goal by 1,000 percent. All additional support will help create trail maps and all-new on-mountain signs utilizing the artwork.

“Mad River Glen is a unique mountain with a storied history and a deep community connection that can’t be found anywhere else,” says map-maker James Niehues. “Painting the mountain’s new map, and at the same time supporting their cooperative model and the Stark Mountain Foundation is a privilege.”

With the help of the Mad River Glen community, once the map is painted, this legacy will be used for printed trail maps and signs for years to come.

“Working with Jim on this project is a dream come true for Mad River Glen,” says marketing and events director Ry Young. “A Niehues map is the map to have for any mountain, and Jim does an incredible job filling in every trail, tree and rock. Mad River Glen has plenty of those.”

Learn more about the Mad River Glen and James Niehues collaboration, and support the Kickstarter here.