In 1987,[3] while working at a Denver print shop, he met Bill Brown, a painter of ski resort maps who was nearing retirement.
[5] After his map was accepted by Winter Park, Niehues printed copies of his illustration and sent them to the marketing managers of ski resorts across the U.S. to advertise his map-painting services.
[9] Niehues' method of painting ski trails begins with aerial photographs of the mountain that he either takes himself or obtains from Google Earth.
[1] He then sketches the mountain based on the photographs and adds color and detail with watercolor paints and an airbrush.
[3] He estimates that he has created trail maps for 75% of the large ski resorts in the U.S.[12] In 2011, his work was displayed in an exhibition at Apexart in New York City.