Part of the rehab included giving the entire mountain exterior a facelift. For only the second time, the first since when the attraction was originally built, scaffolding was erected all the way from the base of the mountain to the top. The mountain had been painted repeatedly through the years, resulting in a mostly white Matterhorn mountain with the appearance of snow, but in 2012, the entire mountain was made bare again and was carefully painted in a style more realistic to the look of the real Matterhorn. This meant placing more snow on the northern side and less of it on the southern side of the mountain. For the first time since the Matterhorn's early days, the base of the mountain was mostly snowless. The snow on the mountain's surface in the past was merely white paint, but for the refurbished ride, glass beads were mixed into the paint so that the snow would reflect sunlight as does actual snow. Imagineer Jim Crouch served as a field art director over the rehab project. The mountain climbers also returned after the refurbishment.