Small batches, from a workbench in Madison
Drawing the map
Each design starts with the resort’s own trail map. Runs, lift lines and ridgelines are redrawn by hand and simplified until the mountain still reads clearly at four inches across.
Engraving the wood
A laser burns the drawing into the wood, pass by pass. Lift lines go in deep, terrain lines are scored lightly, and the lettering sets the frame.
Finishing by hand
A clear acrylic top is fitted over the engraving and fixed with two black hex screws. Every coaster is checked before it is packed, four to a set.
The name
Vertical is what skiers measure a mountain by: the drop from the summit to the base, every foot of it earned on the way down. Grain is the wood the map is burned into.
Each coaster holds a little of both.
Why trail maps
A trail map is the one thing every skier studies: on the chairlift, at lunch, the night before a trip. It holds the whole mountain at once, and the runs you love most are on it somewhere.
Engraved in wood, it becomes something you use every day. A glass set down on Vail on a Tuesday night in March is a small reminder of where you would rather be.
Find your mountain