How do you cut ski trails, and where?

From where to place chairlifts to what kind of snow-making equipment to buy, running a commercial ski operation requires a lot of decisions. Here’s another one: Where and how do you cut ski trails?

I’m sure there are some industry guidelines and rules of thumb in place. They probably include factors such as minimizing erosion (which has implications for water quality), minimizing the chances of skier or rider collisions, taking advantage of natural patterns of snowfall and sunlight exposure, and so forth. (In a way, designing a ski mountain may be like designing a golf course: How much do you take what nature has given you in the land, and how much do you seek to overcome it?)

I thought of these questions as I walked through a park the other day. Like many city parks, it has a playground, a grassy field, and a woods.

What sort of experience would the park make for cross-country skiing? I decided to find out by walking through the woods. There are plenty of informal trails, probably created by local children looking for a place to ride their bikes, run, or even smoke cigarettes or weed, or drink.

Some trails are tightly spaced, with young trees and plants crowding in on the edges. Others are wider. All of them have some debris, small sticks of dead wood. Others are obstructed by tree trunks, which can be thin or thick. Sometimes a trail is obstructed by a whole tree that has been downed by human action–or by age and death.

Speaking of death, I found one trail that I would dub “Suicide Run.” It’s narrow–10 feet wide at its widest–and has many trees–some rather thick–on its edges. It is, at least for the parcel of land, steep. I had a hard time keeping my footing walking down this path in cross-training shoes; I’d hate to be on it on cross-country skies that have no edges. Downhill skis? Maybe. My snowboard? Probably not wide enough for comfort, given the pitch.

So having a mix of easy and difficult trails is one factor. What are some others? If you can point me to some resources on this subject (perhaps the association of ski areas has a publication), please make a note in the comments.