This is the thing that I was wishing existed a couple of months ago when I read "Into Thin Air". It's a fantastic read about the 1996 Mount Everest disaster where eight climbers died, but I often had difficulty visualising what was going on. (There's also a film, Everest, due out next year.)
To be better convey what it's like to climb Everest, I think this visualisation would be improved if it had more annotations about what makes climbing difficult and the dangers involved. For example, the Khumbu Icefall is a fast moving glacier with many crevasses and ice towers, and has a habit of hosting avalanches and falling ice towers. Climbers try to limit the amount of time they spent here due to the danger, although Sherpa guides tend to cross it many times to stock Camp 1 in preparation for their clients.
I second the recommendation of Into Thin Air. If you're at all interested in Everest and mountain climbing, get it. It's a page-turner and I could hardly put it down. ISTR I read it in one sitting.
If you haven't seen it, the MacGillivray Freeman IMAX film "Everest" was shot contemporaneously with the tragedy and is excellent as such made-to-be-shown-in-Science-Centers documentaries go.
I'd like to recommmend Touching the Void, an amazing mountaineering/survival story. Was also made into a movie that the author of the book seems to have favorable opinion of.
Into Thin Air is a really intersting book, i remember myself looking at maps of Mt Everest whilst reading it. It got me interested in the Mt Everest spectacle. I just finished reading Dark Summit which, imo, was not as interesting but it does show, in a better way than ITA, how in these extreme conditions persons struggle a lot with the simplest tasks and becomes selfish and only focusing on one thing: summit. No matter if they wont make it down.
One crazy way to think about it, looking down at base camp at ~17,000 feet you're looking at a spot that's higher than almost all the mountains in the US.
Driving into Colorado from the west, I drove over a mountain pass that was something like 12000 ft high. When I got to my destination, I thought I'd convert that into meters and compare to the mountains back home in Australia. 12000' is 3600m... and the tallest mountain back home is Kosciuszko, which is 2200m high. I'd just driven over a pass 50% higher than the peak of the tallest mountain back home...
I know it is a sign of the amazing times we live in, but that managed to be less than I expected. It's not at a
3D model, but 'just' a panorama.
And yes, the times are amazing. Look at http://www.everest3d.de/en/everest-in-3d/everest-3d-app.html. It looks like somebody thinks he can make money by selling an app that allows those on Everest to browse a 3D model of the mountain (what else is the GPS option for?)
On a related note, the other huge resolution photo tour of everest seems to have a bunch of clickable links, which take you to more detailed up close photo tours.. this is truly cool as a companion:
http://www.npr.org/2012/12/20/167621313/a-billion-pixel-tour...
The problem with ALL of these images, virtual 3d tours, interactive maps - it just does NOT show scale! What does a person look like in these images? I have never been there, but I have no sense of scale of these images. Can a person be seen from these?
I've never seen a photo or visualization that gives a feel for the size of the area at the summit of Everest. There are thousands of photos taken at summit of course, but it's always someone standing on the summit himself, so you don't know how much space is behind the photographer.
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To be better convey what it's like to climb Everest, I think this visualisation would be improved if it had more annotations about what makes climbing difficult and the dangers involved. For example, the Khumbu Icefall is a fast moving glacier with many crevasses and ice towers, and has a habit of hosting avalanches and falling ice towers. Climbers try to limit the amount of time they spent here due to the danger, although Sherpa guides tend to cross it many times to stock Camp 1 in preparation for their clients.
Their documentary about the tragedy "Storm Over Everest" is fantastic. Unfortunately, it can't be watched for free online any more.
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And yes, the times are amazing. Look at http://www.everest3d.de/en/everest-in-3d/everest-3d-app.html. It looks like somebody thinks he can make money by selling an app that allows those on Everest to browse a 3D model of the mountain (what else is the GPS option for?)
(Of course, there are no trees because this is far, far above treeline)
According to this source http://www.alanarnette.com/everest/everestsouthroutes.php the summit is 30 square feet (or 3 square meters). I'd still love to see an close-up aerial photo from a helicopter or plane directly overhead.
I get "Not currently available on BBC iPlayer" when I try to play it, but I did find the same video on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=E4P...
I linked to the time when the balloon crosses over Everest (40 minutes 56 seconds).
It's still not close enough to give a real feel of how big the summit is.