MOUNTAIN CHANGE
2026 will mark another exciting year for the Winter Olympics.
But in all mountainous regions of the world, climate change is accelerating faster than almost anywhere else on Earth.
The snow line is rising.
Glaciers are retreating.
Winters are getting shorter.
According to the International Olympic Committee itself, climate change is already reshaping the future of the Winter Games.
By 2040, only around ten countries worldwide may still have climatic conditions suitable for hosting them.
ART OF DATA
Mountain Change is a global visual project that transforms climate data into mountain forms.
From the Alps to the Himalayas, from the Andes to the Rockies, each mountain is no longer drawn as a landscape, but calculated as an annual average of temperature.
Each mountain is generated from temperature averages, year after year, turning invisible data into physical relief.
Mountain Change shows the mountain as it has never been seen before, not as a place of altitude or purity, but as a measurable body undergoing irreversible transformation.
Mountain Change is an art project by Sylvain Boyer, designer and creator of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games brand, with the support of Royalties, brand management agency for Paris 2024, and Saguez & Partners, creator of the Tour de France brand.
It is inspired by Show Your Stripes, the climate visualization created by Professor Ed Hawkins at the University of Reading, Berkshire, England.
METHOD
Mountain Change is based on open climate data from major scientific institutions, including Météo-France, European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, the U.S. National Weather Service, Deutscher Wetterdienst, Japan Meteorological Agency, Historical Weather, and Open Meteo.
For each mountain range, temperature data are collected from representative high-altitude locations. Annual averages are calculated and translated into a single mountain form, whose height and color evolve year after year.
Mountain height shows the year’s temperature change, and color shifts from cool to warm as that change increases. The data span from 1992, the year of the Albertville Winter Olympic Games, to 2025.
LICENSE
Mountain Change visualizations are released under the Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial–NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
This license allows free sharing and redistribution of the visuals, provided that Sylvain Boyer is credited and a link to the official website is included. Commercial use, modification, or derivative works are not permitted.
For any other use, please contact the author.
