What Makes a Ski Map Worth Putting on the Wall?

The Frozen Underground Central artwork is a natural focal point for a ski interior, with plenty to discover once you get closer.

There are plenty of ways to represent skiing on a wall. Mountain photography can capture the scale of the landscape. Vintage posters can evoke another era. Piste maps can instantly bring a particular ski area to mind.

A ski network map, however, does something different: rather than concentrating on one mountain or one resort, it brings the wider skiing world together.

France meets Spain. Switzerland connects with Italy. Familiar names sit alongside resorts you have yet to visit. Routes cross, regions meet and a lifetime of skiing begins to look like part of one much bigger system.
That is the idea behind the Frozen Underground Central Network. It takes ski destinations from across Europe and beyond and reimagines them as stations on one enormous underground network. Hop on the Tube in London and arrive in no time in the French Alps!

And once it is on the wall, the fun is not simply in looking at it - it is in exploring it.

The pleasure of finding your own skiing history

​For many people, that exploration begins in exactly the same way - by looking for the places they know.

One of the most satisfying things about a map is recognition. You see a familiar name, then another, and suddenly the artwork begins to connect with your own experiences.

Perhaps you look first for somewhere you have skied for years, or for a place you visited last winter. Then your eye starts travelling along the lines. One destination leads to another; a country changes; an interchange appears; a place you know sits surprisingly close to somewhere you have always meant to visit.

That process is part of what makes the Central Network more than a decorative map. It allows each viewer to bring their own skiing history to the artwork.

Someone who has spent decades travelling through the Alps may see a trail of holidays spread across the artwork. Another may recognise only a handful of places but immediately start noticing the ones they would like to add. A family might stand in front of it comparing where everyone has been. A chalet owner may see the resorts their guests talk about every winter.
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The network itself stays the same, but what people see in it depends entirely on their own experience.

The first instinct is usually to look for the places you already know.

A map of skiing, rather than a map of a resort

The Central Network is deliberately different from a conventional ski resort map. It is not there to show the layout of pistes or lifts, and it does not attempt to reproduce the geography of one particular destination.

Its purpose is broader: the current Central Network contains 192 ski resort stations, including 27 additions for the 2026/27 season. Rather than presenting those places as separate destinations, the network brings them together through the visual language of a transport system.

That makes it possible to see skiing as a connected world rather than a collection of isolated resorts - all destinations become part of the same system. In that sense, the Central Network is closer to a visual map of skiing itself - an artwork designed  for recognition and discovery, whilst bringing this vast array of resorts into an artistic  order.

Skiing is full of connections. Some destinations share ski areas. Some cross national borders. Some are linked by railways or wider regions. Others are connected by history, culture or the way skiers move between them over the years. The Central Network takes that sprawling ski world and gives it a structure.

One network of 192 stations - that's a lot of skiing history to find your way through.

A map should reward another look

The most interesting maps rarely give everything away at once. At first, you notice the overall design. Then the lines. Then the station names. After that, smaller details begin to emerge. That sense of discovery has become increasingly important in the latest Central Network editions.

The Central Network [Classic Edition] presents the complete 192-station network in A3 format. The larger Central Network [Discovery Edition] adds three further details to the artwork: mountain railways, significant night skiing and cross-border skiing. The Central Network [Gallery Edition], produced as an 80 × 60 cm aluminium artwork, goes further again with selected cross-border ski-area names, historical milestones, skiing records and other discoveries.

The point is not simply that one version is larger than another. The larger formats create room for more information which has been chosen because it adds another layer to this artistic skiing world. They also give viewers a reason to stop, read and perhaps tell someone else something they did not know.
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That is exactly the kind of behaviour Frozen Underground is designed to encourage - artworks that give the owner something to recognise, remember, discover and talk about.

The Classic, Discovery and Gallery editions of the Central Network use the same network, but reveal increasingly detailed layers of information.

The same map means something different to everyone

One of the strengths of the Central Network is that it does not dictate what the viewer should care about.

Someone who mainly skis in France will focus on one section, whereas someone who loves Austria will probably head elsewhere. A skier who has spent years travelling between countries may trace a much broader route through the artwork.

There is also a difference between recognising the places you have already been and noticing those you have not. That makes the Central Network part memory and part possibility. You can look at it as a record of where skiing has already taken you, or as a reminder of how much there is still to discover.

That personal relationship becomes stronger again when the artwork is customised. Frozen Underground has a long history of producing bespoke and personalised work: names, chalets, businesses and other meaningful details can become part of a commission where appropriate, making the network feel even more connected to the person or place displaying it.

A network map can become even more personal when it reflects a particular family, chalet or skiing history.

So, what makes a ski network map worth putting on the wall?

A good ski network map should work on more than one level. From across the room, it should have enough presence to stand as a piece of art. Up close, it should offer something more: familiar places, unexpected connections and details that encourage you to keep looking.

That is where the Central Network earns its place. It brings together 192 ski destinations in one coherent design, but the experience of viewing it is personal. One person may immediately find the places they know best, while another may start spotting countries or destinations they still want to visit. Someone else may simply enjoy following the lines and discovering what lies along them.

The map becomes more interesting the longer you spend with it, because it is not trying to tell one fixed story. It gives the viewer a framework and lets their own skiing memories and interests do the rest.
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And that, perhaps, is what makes it work so well on a wall: it is both a finished piece of artwork and something that continues to invite another look.

FIND YOUR PLACE ON THE NETWORK
Explore the Frozen Underground Central Network in three editions, from the complete A3 Classic Edition, through the larger Discovery Edition, to the 80 × 60 cm aluminium Gallery Edition.

EXPLORE THE CENTRAL NETWORK

Looking for something more personal?

EXPLORE CUSTOM ART

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