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Two Billion Pixel Photo of Mount Everest (can you find the climbers?)

549 points| matthodan | 13 years ago |s3.amazonaws.com | reply

165 comments

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[+] jasonkester|13 years ago|reply
Looks like there's a few on the icefall. Follow the line of garbage, then up and across the fall. The only hard part is dealing with the inverted mouse movement on the interface. Why would they do that???
[+] PhrosTT|13 years ago|reply
For those looking:

1. Of the 3 mountains, look at the peak of the center one (Lhotse).

2. Below that, the right half is big chunky snow, and the left half is smooth, icey looking snow.

3. Look at the line where the smooth left half meets the chunky right half. - Halfway up that you can find CAMP 3. [You'll see little ant people marching up that centerline - follow them to their tents.]

Also once you see CAMP 3, you actually see tracks in the snow. There's a manmade line going diagonally up/left across the center mountain, up the rock face, and then continues up/left to the little snow valley where Everest hits Lhotse along the horizon line. I suppose somewhere around there is CAMP 4.

[+] chimi|13 years ago|reply
There's a little icon at the bottom to "Change Control Mode." Click it and the inversion reverses.
[+] leetrout|13 years ago|reply
I came to post that- about the mouse movement.

It's absolutely driving me nuts. Makes no sense.

[+] knowaveragejoe|13 years ago|reply
Does inverted mean 'move in the direction you want to go'? I thought it was the other way around.
[+] monsterix|13 years ago|reply
Those are tents, not a line of garbage.
[+] pdeuchler|13 years ago|reply
I don't know why it's not noted on the controls, but for me Shift -> zoom in, Cmd -> zoom out and arrow keys to move around.
[+] city41|13 years ago|reply
Actually the controls are "non-inverted", pull down to look down. Inverted is when you pull down to look up. Non-inverted is now very popular. Most first person shooter games that ship today have non-inverted as the default. I generally find people about my age and older (30 somethings) prefer inverted, but younger people vastly prefer non-inverted.
[+] rvanniekerk|13 years ago|reply
Could the garbage you are referring to actually be the camps at the base of the mountain?
[+] crikli|13 years ago|reply
Yup, I couldn't see anybody higher than the Lhotse Face. Couldn't spot any tents on the South Col. Must be the wrong angle.
[+] jwoldan|13 years ago|reply
You can reverse the mouse controls with the "Change Controlmode" button. I found the defaults tricky to handle as well.
[+] ricardobeat|13 years ago|reply
Use Shift (zoom in), Ctrl (zoom out) and the arrow keys.

The interface is similar to RTS games, click and hold to move in that direction, not like maps.

[+] ednc|13 years ago|reply
There is a option on the controls at the bottom (2nd button from right - 4 arrows, called change control mode) to 'fix' the mouse navigation direction.
[+] fpp|13 years ago|reply
anyone counted the portable toilet cabins in the base camp(s) - stopped with 58

how do they get those up and down?

[+] vitno|13 years ago|reply
that's not garbage... it's tents.
[+] hfs|13 years ago|reply

[deleted]

[+] EvanAnderson|13 years ago|reply
This photo really makes me appreciate the fractal geometry and self-similarity of natural formations. When looking at part of the image w/o any objects of known size for reference I lost all sense of proportion. Tiny "pebbles" were actually boulders, etc.
[+] Guillaume86|13 years ago|reply
Same here, couldn't make sense of the proportions in the foreground, I though the valley was a 1m wide track at first
[+] arscan|13 years ago|reply
So this is a little off-topic, but I read an article the other week that i haven't been able to shake about the number of people that have died on Everest and whose bodies have never been retrieved (warning, morbid and slightly graphic):

http://sometimes-interesting.com/2011/06/29/over-200-dead-bo...

Just a reminder that those little dots are people who are taking a very real risk by attempting to reach the summit. I'm not sure if I'm envious of their drive, or if I think they are absolutely crazy.

[+] thesis|13 years ago|reply
There are far deadlier mountains out there than Everest. I think the current death rate is around 5%. Annapurna has killed about 35% of the climbers that attempted.

It has gotten to the point where there are basically proven (about as much as you can for something so dangerous) methods of getting to the top.

"Into Thin Air" is a great book on the journey (the very bad , and the good) to the top.

[+] RockyMcNuts|13 years ago|reply
The headline is a bit linkbait-y. A total of about 233 people have died. The Khumbu Icefall at the bottom is one of the most dangerous stretches, since it moves, giant seracs can collapse, etc. Those who died there would probably have been recovered and given a decent burial, or be lost at the bottom of a crevasse. When someone dies and it's not feasible to bring them down, typically at some point someone would bring them off the main trail and give them a decent burial. Others fall into inaccessible locations. Still there are a few bodies that have become landmarks. A longer discussion I saw in response to that widely shared article - http://www.alanarnette.com/blog/2012/12/06/bodies-on-everest...
[+] jordan0day|13 years ago|reply
Wow, I was thinking to myself: "Jeez, look at all that trash those climbers have left on the mountain!"

Then I zoomed in some more, and realized the "trash" was actually tents.

[+] krenoten|13 years ago|reply
Actually, a TON of trash gets left there. Oxygen tanks especially. Also- if you die there, expect to stay put.
[+] monsterix|13 years ago|reply
Jesus, it's imposing. How small the tents are in comparison to even the ripples of snow at the base of the mountain!
[+] kstenerud|13 years ago|reply
Very cool, but the inverted acceleration panning is incredibly difficult and frustrating to use. I gave up after a few attempts to zoom and pan.
[+] gautamc|13 years ago|reply
I saw the /gigapans/ in the URL and googled for it, thinking it must be a super intelligent panoramic "image sticher"+"image viewer" written in flash - but found this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigapan
[+] elliottcarlson|13 years ago|reply
The founder of the company I work for (Lot18) actually climbed Everest - so after sending him the link to this, he dropped by and explained everything we were looking at - and outlining the paths and various dangers associated with the climb. It's quite an amazing story - and I found some slides related to his climb from 2009: http://www.slideshare.net/snooth/everest-2003-north-face-res...
[+] 001sky|13 years ago|reply
This is the work of David Bresears

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Breashears

The result of a project by David Breashears, who has already climbed the highest mountain in the world five times. He used old images of Everest and its glaciers and combined them with new ones.

The photo is part of a broader project called GlacierWorks by the mountaineer Breashears, who made the much-acclaimed IMAX documentary “Everest.”

[+] slajax|13 years ago|reply
Just spent like 25 minutes looking it over with my colleague at work. There is so much going on here, it's awesome. I was also very blown away by how big the camp at the bottom of the valley was. Most of those must be semi-permanent structures that the guides maintain. I couldn't imagine that is transient traffic. I think I remember seeing something on departures (or something) about a big festival that happens in this valley. Maybe that has some context here as well, but I have no idea. Great link!
[+] skandl|13 years ago|reply
Wow this is captivating, but panning with the mouse on a desktop is so frustrating, the image movement is opposite what I expect! (browsing on a desktop, Windows/Chrome)
[+] mpweiher|13 years ago|reply
Yeah, panning with the mouse was awful, but with the keyboard it became a real joy, and I started finding the climbers.
[+] darkstalker|13 years ago|reply
I hate this panning mode in the "opposite direction" and with velocity. I prefer to drag the image.
[+] skandl|13 years ago|reply
I guess it's the hours spent panning around in Google Maps that's working against me
[+] com2kid|13 years ago|reply
I am confused, how so? It is the same as any FPS.
[+] widk|13 years ago|reply
There might be a couple of climbers on the left ridge of Everest, which I just read is the easier climb. If you look near the base of the ridge on the left, there is a strip of snow that starts going up the mountain. Follow the ridge up you will come across a little cloud puff rising up on the other side. Just beyond that point, you will see two super-tiny parallel specks that sort of look like they are leaning into the mountain.
[+] danhodgins|13 years ago|reply
I only found the climbers after looking at this Everest route map:

http://www.greatoutdoors.com/everest-2010/routes-maps

Look for camp 3. You have to zoom all the way in, and look at where the rough snow meets the smooth snow. You'll see some super tiny yellow dots, those are the tents. The tiny black specks just to the left are climbers.

The sense of scale in the Himalayas is almost unfathomable.....

[+] krschultz|13 years ago|reply
I'm amazed not by the mountain - but by the size of the camp in the valley. I knew a lot of people climbed Mt Everest, but that't practically a small city.
[+] manaslutech|13 years ago|reply
Great picture! We are also a company based in Nepal where this picture is taken from. Our company name is after another peak - Manaslu, which is a 8th highest peak in the world. We do Ruby on Rails web development. http://www.manaslutech.com