From a distance, mountain landscapes may appear timeless and immutable. Take a closer look, however, and montane ecologies reveal themselves to be laboratories of radical transformation: rocks weather and fall; ecosystems burst into life for brief intervals; tree-lines shift; and wildfires rage. Even the very peaks themselves inch inexorably upwards or downwards with the flow of time.Amidst all the constant, unyielding change that animates the Earth's high places, people have long sought a vantage from which to survey this shifting terrain. Who can resist the romance of a breathtaking, mountaintop view? Or then to imagine what generations past might have seen from the same spot?In the mid 1990s, a small group of scientists in western Canada grew dissatisfied with mere imagining — they wanted to see that change for themselves. And in a forgotten corner of a national archive, they found some very heavy boxes that held a rare promise: an opportunity to look back in time at a landscape scale.HEY VANCOUVER: if you'd prefer to hear this episode in 3D spatial audio (followed by a Q&A), grab a ticket to New Forms Festival's Sound Space Program VI and join us at Performance Works (1218 Cartwright St) at 2:15 pm today (Dec 17)– – –For musical credits, select photos, citations, links, and more, click here.Support the show and join our Patreon community– – –Learn more about the Mountain Legacy Project: mountainlegacy.caExplore all the photos and data: explore.mountainlegacy.caMore on land cover classification | Webinar | Deep Dive