
Two Billion Pixel Photo of Mount Everest (can you find the climbers?) - matthodan
https://s3.amazonaws.com/Gigapans/EBC_Pumori_050112_8bit_FLAT/EBC_Pumori_050112_8bit_FLAT.html
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jasonkester
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
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. __

~~~
moe
For anyone who is still looking:
<http://f.cl.ly/items/3w2j2h0a1a3h0M1K0i3l/ppl.jpg>

(you can only see the people at max zoom-level, they are really tiny)

~~~
teufelabgott
I've found this lonely guy <http://cl.ly/image/221I0N1x1c1Y>

~~~
fictorial
I don't know but I think that might be two people. That, or he's hugging a
small bear.
[https://www.evernote.com/shard/s3/sh/1d7328b2-960d-4728-b9af...](https://www.evernote.com/shard/s3/sh/1d7328b2-960d-4728-b9af-5ec4ff1d90b1/1fe799ee8ba3d6b29dc1d859eb8c08b0)

~~~
yRetsyM
I saw it as him looking back at another guy by the pole. Dressed in a very
camouflaging outfit.

<http://imgur.com/rGTc9>

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EvanAnderson
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
Same here, couldn't make sense of the proportions in the foreground, I though
the valley was a 1m wide track at first

~~~
jcmoscon
Same thing here! Fractals geometry is very interesting!

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arscan
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...](http://sometimes-interesting.com/2011/06/29/over-200-dead-bodies-on-
mount-everest/)

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
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.

~~~
crikli
I always thought about doing Everest if I could ever afford it. You know, one
those idle "I'll do that someday thoughts" we all have.

Once I hit the "I could afford this" point I started researching
Everest...read Into Thin Air, Dark Summit, No Shortcuts to the Top, etc.,
watched every documentary I could get my hands on, even talked with one of the
climbers featured on the Discovery series that featured Russel Brice's
company.

I've concluded that I'm not interested. I'm not interested in standing in line
at the Second Step for hours while my body consumes itself and I burn through
the scant amount of oxygen I have. I'm not interested in the very real risk
that I may arrive back at Camp IV after a summit attempt to find my O2 and
supplies stolen. I'm not interested in seeing the corpses, oxygen bottles,
tents, and other detritus cluttering up the mountain.

I'm not condemning those who chose to go or those who help them get there, but
I'm out: human behavior has made the idea of summiting Everest unappealing.

~~~
matwood
Mountaineering is a great time, but I agree with you about Everest. If you
want to do something fun, challenging, and not quite so dangerous or
commercialized check out climbing 14ers. Climbing all the ones in the state is
a common past time in Colorado. They all have varying degrees of difficulty
and depending the peak and time of year you may have a beautiful day climb
completely alone.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Colorado_fourteeners>

The couple years I lived in CO I managed to get a few done and really enjoyed
the experience.

~~~
usefulcat
My favorite moment while at the top of a 14er in CO: heard a helicopter,
looked around for it, then realized it was _below_ us.

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matthodan
Here is a Gizmodo article on the photo for those wanting the back story:
[http://gizmodo.com/5969706/a-stunning-two-billion-pixel-
phot...](http://gizmodo.com/5969706/a-stunning-two-billion-pixel-photo-is-the-
safest-way-to-explore-mount-everest)

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jordan0day
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
Actually, a TON of trash gets left there. Oxygen tanks especially. Also- if
you die there, expect to stay put.

~~~
reaperhulk
Oxygen bottles are not nearly the problem they used to be due to programs in
the late 90s and on where companies paid Sherpas (and other climbers) for
bringing empties back off the mountain. There's also been a concerted effort
to pick up trash starting ~1990 (see:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Day_20_International_Peac...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Day_20_International_Peace_Climb))

------
pmoehring
When you follow
[http://www.alanarnette.com/downloads/everestsouthroutemap.jp...](http://www.alanarnette.com/downloads/everestsouthroutemap.jpg)
this picture you can see the route. I had a hard time seeing any of the
climbers until I knew where to look.

Point C3 is the last place you can actually see humans (& tents), C4 is
already more of a guess.

~~~
crikli
Forbidden link. :(

~~~
neuspadrin
Go to the main website: <http://www.alanarnette.com/> then copy url for image
in:
[http://www.alanarnette.com/downloads/everestsouthroutemap.jp...](http://www.alanarnette.com/downloads/everestsouthroutemap.jpg)

Simple hot linking restrictions.

~~~
crikli
Well now I feel dumb(er). :)

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kstenerud
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.

~~~
jdludlow
If you think "I'm moving the camera on this tripod" it suddenly becomes very
natural. It worked for me anyway.

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arscan
I was able to follow the line of people / tents about halfway up using this as
a guide:

[http://www.abc-of-mountaineering.com/images/content-
images/a...](http://www.abc-of-mountaineering.com/images/content-
images/article-327.gif)

Then lost them. Amazing photo!

~~~
chm
I was able to follow them from base camp to the upper camps. It's easy, just
zoom in and take five minutes of scrolling around!

I identified people by their shadows.

~~~
slajax
Yeah we did this too. Couldn't find anyone for camp 4 though. I have a decent
guess where it as though.

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gautamc
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>

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elliottcarlson
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...](http://www.slideshare.net/snooth/everest-2003-north-face-rescue)

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001sky
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.”_

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slajax
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!

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skandl
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
Yeah, panning with the mouse was awful, but with the keyboard it became a real
joy, and I started finding the climbers.

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widk
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.

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danhodgins
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.....

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krschultz
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.

~~~
matthodan
I felt the same way. There must be so much garbage on that mountain.

~~~
jpablo
Everest is littered with dead, exposed bodies:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1978295>

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rcamera
Nice photograph and interface. How was the photograph actually composed?

Found them... Spoiler: <http://imgur.com/zpyOg>

~~~
johnsocs
A GigaPan type device.. <http://www.gigapan.com/>

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hxseven
The GlacierWorks team (in cooperation with URC Ventures) also made a photo-
realistic 3D model of the Himalayas using images that were captured using a
helicopter.

The preview video looks promising:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEs3euTgj8s>

Background info: <http://urcventures.com/whats-new/>

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recroad
In case anyone`s wondering, this is where the riders are:
<http://i.imgur.com/dTUJA.jpg>

~~~
mpweiher
The lowest I could find (outside of basecamp) were here:
<http://i.imgur.com/U6GaL.jpg>

Did anyone find climbers lower in the icefall?

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manaslutech
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>

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crikli
Others will be able to fill in more detail as I'm just going off memory here,
but I _think_ this is taken from the Nepalese side.

The ice field just above Base Camp (which, wow, look at all those tents) is
the Khumbu Icefall, which climbers must scale to en route to the South Col.

~~~
ghaff
I think it was taken from the Kala Patthar summit or somewhere close to there.
(So, yes, the Nepalese side.)

~~~
azov
The view from Kala Patthar summit is pretty different angle, this picture must
be taken from somewhere north of KP. I would guess it is from Pumori Advanced
Base Camp.

~~~
prawn
URL suggests you're right: EBC_Pumori

EBC is presumably "Everest Base Camp."

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ohwp
Is this done with Autopano (<http://www.kolor.com/>
<http://www.cs.bath.ac.uk/brown/autostitch/autostitch.html>)?

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mikegirouard
This is simply breathtaking. I'm sure the app behind this is assembling tiles
together, but does there exist a full-resolution image of this in a single
piece?

I've tried to use my network inspector to figure out how to access the
individual tiles, but no luck.

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frozenport
I really like the user experience and I am impressed by how fluid it runs on
my computer. Much more fluid than Google maps. You should add a collaborative
tagging interface, where users can choose to point out certain parts.

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weej
Amazing. I was fortunate to travel out to Alaska a couple of years ago and do
some glacier climbing and hiking. It was amazing, but pales in comparison to
the vast, immense power of this photo. Awesome.

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csl
What kind of equipment was used to take this photo? It's pretty amazing!

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adrianbg
Didn't find any climbers but found lots of bits of dust on my screen.

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isnotchicago
For more photos of the mountain and others, the photographers' site:
<http://www.glacierworks.org/the-glaciers/>

~~~
hxseven
There are also some interesting "behind the scenes" photos on flickr:
<http://www.flickr.com/photos/glacierworks/>

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brunokenj
Some guys? <http://postimage.org/image/xwf2yb46t/> from another view of tour.

~~~
brunokenj
<http://postimage.org/image/b584kmjod/>

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songzme
How do you take a billion pixel photos? All the cameras I've ever heard of is
mega pixels... I've never heard of a billa pixel camera before.

~~~
dudurocha
You merge hundreds thousands mega pixel pictures!

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jcmoscon
When I saw the picture and it was totally zoom out , I thought it was a small
road between some small hills. That's totally a fractal!

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justindocanto
At first look the mountain looked so small. Then i found some humans, the size
of ants, and it was all put into perspective. Wow.

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alexpopescu
Is this a climber or just a shadow? <http://cl.ly/image/3m3K3x0n3k1U>

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meerita
From this point it doesn't look so high. But when you start zooming, some
parts seems like they're few miles and other, endless.

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shanellem
Amazing. It's things like this that put the world in perspective. How much we
can achieve, the beauty of the world, etc.

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jrockway
Any headline which ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no. And
no, I couldn't find the climbers.

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ejfox
I wish that this was retina-ready because it sounds like two billion pixels is
what this machine was made for.

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kamikaze203
What is it ? <http://i50.tinypic.com/90nds3.png>

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CalvinCopyright
If you don't look at the pointers, this is the most difficult Where's Waldo
ever.

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JohnFromBuffalo
Can you find the dead climber? That's the real question. I found one already.

~~~
lutze
Shouldn't be that hard, there are loads of the poor buggers. Just look around
the climbing routes, they don't (can't) move most of the bodies AFAIK.

Bit morbid though.

~~~
JohnFromBuffalo
I read Into Thin Air, about the 1996 account by a reporter who was with the
crew that lost 4 members. After poking around I saw someone saying the Sherpas
will kick bodies in the crevasses and they wash out in the Spring. Sad, but
with a rate of 1:4 before 1996, then 1:7 after on death ratios its gotten much
better. However, it takes money/balls/stupidity to climb that thing.

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aakarpost
Could not find the climbers. But this 2B pixel photo is just awesome. :)

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dutchbrit
Could you remove the XML reference to mobile/tablet images in krpano?

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johnnymonster
Does anyone know how this picture was taken or who took the picture?

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grimey27
Beautiful and terrifying. I could examine this for hours.

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TommyDANGerous
This is the nicest picture I have seen in a while.

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Yaggo
Would be nice if they offered a web version too.

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meerita
Nice, it works neat on my retina display, :D

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alexcabrera
This would be awesome for Where's Waldo

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albinoloverats
Yes, I did - but by pure luck :p

~~~
arethuza
If you start at Base Camp and follow the route up you can see quite a few -
I've spotted around 30.

Difficult to believe how big Base Camp is!

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tesko8482
This is absolutely gorgeous.

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flavien_bessede
Need banana for scale.

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bryanjclark
Huge mountain is Huge.

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pjy04
unbelievable...

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alimoeeny
What is the point? are you load testing S3 or something?

~~~
DavidAdams
The point is that the creation of that high-resolution image of Everest is a
noteworthy technological achievement, and most people have never seen such a
high quality photograph of our planet's highest mountain before.

