Mountain Graphix

10/15/2026

When teaching a young one how to ski, an instructor will often say, "Look where you want to go, because your skis will follow." While not 100% accurate on all occasions, it's a good rule-of-thumb for every level of skier. An employee at a Colorado ski area was hauling 2 patrol toboggans back up the mountain with a snow machine. A young skier, traveling downhill on the same ski run, appeared to lock in on the snow machine and skied toward it. Fortunately, she struck one of the toboggans rather than the machine, but sustained an injury.

Mountain Graphix performed a laser scan survey of the ski trail. The combined laser scans, or point cloud, was used to video match the motion of the family member videoing the skier, the route of the young skier, and the route of the snowmobile. From these matches, the speed of the snowmobile was determined and an animation was created from the perspective of the video camera. In this particular case, a mesh was not created; we utilized the point cloud itself as the visual element.

10/14/2026

New Mexico Highway Patrol did an outstanding job documenting a multi-vehicle accident that occurred in the early hours on I-25. The initial collision involved a relatively small rear-end collision between two passenger vehicles. One of the vehicles was disabled in a Southbound travel lane with it's lights inoperative. Minutes later, a passenger bus traveling Southbound encountered the darkened vehicle and rolled onto its side in an effort to avoid a collision. Finally, a semi-truck struck the under-carriage of the bus.

Mountain Graphix utilized the accident documentation to recreate the scene of the accident. The skid marks and oil spill helped determine the paths of the bus and truck before and after the collision

10/13/2026

A number of years ago, Mountain Graphix submitted a bid to do a Mountain Coaster Safety Video for coaster operators across Colorado. This short animation was a quick and simple demo to establish how the completed animation could look. It contained almost no character movements but covered some of the safety points from a Coaster Safety Manual.

We believe that the idea of quick safety videos that participants watch before signing the waiver is still a good idea. It reminds or teaches participants the basics while highlighting safety concerns. It can give operators an additional tool to reduce avoidable injuries.

10/12/2026

Mountain Graphix worked on a number of projects for the Water Sports Industry Association (WSIA), including a set of safety illustrations for boaters that were included in a water safety handbook.

The purpose of these illustrations was to emphasize the potential hazard of carbon monoxide getting trapped in and around idling boats, particularly in areas like a partially enclosed Bimini or near a dock.

10/09/2026

Mountain Graphix was asked to visit a zipline park along the Arkansas River in an effort to create a sales pitch to produce a Risk Management Safety Video for the Colorado River Outfitters Association. The connection between raft companies and ziplines may seem unusual, but many raft companies in Colorado also own zipline courses located near their offices. Both activities attract outdoor adventurers. Zipline courses can extend the season when water levels start running low and allow outfitters to sell package deals.

Mountain Graphix had creative license to utilize fun crash test dummies to show what could be possible in a zipline safety video that would be shown to clients before they signed a waiver.

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10/08/2026

An employee at Silverton Mountain invited her mother to the top of the lift where she had worked at all season. Her mother was not a skier so she had to unload the lift on foot, but injured her leg on the soft offramp.

Mountain Graphix did a site visit to the mountain in the summer months after the incident occurred. It is difficult to establish the depth of snow months after it has melted, so we utilized photogrammetry based on multiple investigation photos to establish the slope angle and depth of snow on the offramp the day of the injury. In the attached illustrations the dark orange is the wooden offramp (permanent ramp) and the rainbow colored slope is the snow on the day of accident with the colors representing the slope angle.

10/07/2026

A mild collision between two skiers at Deer Valley turned into a lawsuit when neither skier could agree about the facts in the altercation. Mountain Graphix's client claimed that a skier ran over the back of his skis causing him, the plaintiff, to fall and injure himself.

The plaintiff claimed that he had been struck and that the defendant skied away and left the scene. The defendant was recording his own GPS location at the resort and demonstrated that he had skied an additional 50-75 ft downhill of the Position of Impact, to slow down, and climbed back up the hill to the plaintiff. He called for patrol, waited for their arrival and skied with them to the bottom of the lift where contact info was exchanged.

Mountain Graphix re-created the Deer Valley trail where the incident occurred using GIS and Laser Scans. We, then, animated the skiers in the case to illustrate the defendant's version of the incident.

09/30/2026

Humans naturally guard the head, neck and face in in the event of an impending impact. We tuck our chins, close our eyes, roll our shoulders forward and cover our face with our hands to help protect ourselves. So when a person suffers an orbital fracture, the mechanism of injury was either a total surprise or simply too rapid to react to.

Mountain Graphix was asked to illustrate an eye in an eye socket to show how the optical nerve and muscles are situated in a skull.

09/29/2026

During the construction of a large-scale dairy barn, a metal strut came into contact with powerline. While the operator of the telehandler lift was not injured, the construction worker that was guiding the orientation of the strut, walking nearby, was fatally injured.

Based on photos, measurements and a laser scan of the scene, Mountain Graphix reconstructed the site of the incident and animated the telehandler and strut to illustrate the chain of events that led to the accident.

09/22/2026

Many cases get settled before Mountain Graphix has a chance to complete the Animation or Illustrations for the Experts that we work with. This case falls into that category. A disabled person was being transported in a accessibility shuttle. While on the lift, their wheelchair rolled off.

Mountain Graphix created a simple scene with a transport shuttle and a lift. We also modified the interior of the van to match investigation photos of the van's interior configuration. The idea was to show how a wheelchair is secured inside the van and how a wheelchair is supposed to be secured to the lift.