Find below different shaded relief maps providing unique views of the Himalayas:
- Open Street Maps
- Elevation
- Land Cover
- Eco Regions
- Temperature
- Precipitation
- Snowcover
Maps were generated via QGIS using OSM data, OpenTopography DEM overlaid with land and climate data from various sources. Click on the maps below to download hires 300dpi 100x100cm printable maps showing 12 major basins and hundreds of hiking routes, mountain passes, towns, peaks and lakes.
Open Street Maps
A standard shaded relief map with 100m contours showing terrain details (forests, glaciers, open) along with hundreds of hiking routes and mountain passes.
Elevation
A shaded contour map of the Himalayas using a 0-7000m altitude spectrum color scale clearly showing the variations in elevation across the region. Source: Open Street Maps and OpenTopography.
Land Cover
A 10 meter high-resolution shaded relief map showing global land use: water, crops, trees. built areas. rangeland, snow/ice and bare ground offering a unique view on natural changes and human footprint in the Himalayas. Source: ESRI Global Land Cover
Eco Regions
Eco-regions, in the simplest definition, are ecosystems of regional extent. Specifically, ecoregions represent distinct assemblages of biodiversity―all taxa, not just vegetation―whose boundaries include the space required to sustain ecological processes. Eco-regions provide a useful basemap for conservation planning in particular because they draw on natural, rather than political, boundaries, define distinct biogeographic assemblages and ecological habitats within biomes, and assist in representation of Earth’s biodiversity. Source: Resolve Biomes and Eco Regions
Average Temperature
Below shaded topographic map shows historical climate data (average monthly temperature for April) at 5 min resolution (5 miles) for the Himalayan region. Historical climate data allows us to get a better understanding of the expected weather conditions in various regions or along specific hiking routes for a specific month. Source: WorldClim
Precipitation
Below shaded relief map shows average (2020-2024) monthly precipitation (September) at 2.5 min resolution across the Himalayas allowing us to assess the expected rain (above 0C) or snow (below 0C) fall across the Himalayas on a color scale from 0 to 500mm. Source: WorldClim
Snow cover
Below shaded topo map shows high resolution (1 sec = 30m) snow cover on 13 Jan 2026 across the Himalayas essential for hikers to plan snow cover across various regions and hundreds of hiking routes. Source: Copernicus Sentinel-2