Mount Everest Gigapixel Photo (this is really nifty neato, worth a click through)

[Electric Monk]

Picture this: Mount Everest, captured in astounding interactive digital detail. We're not talking megapixels, we're talking gigapixels -- as in two to three billion pixels. An image so detailed you can zoom in on individuals standing around at basecamp from miles away.

The folks at Glacier Works recently finished putting together such an image as part of their work to track climate change and its effects on the glaciers of Mount Everest.

"Our high-resolution gigapixel photography enables viewers to experience the glaciers as never before: up-close and with extreme precision," writes Glacier Works on the group's Facebook page. "Using our online tools, it is possible to soar thousands of feet above a glacier and view it in its entirety, or zoom down to the ground and explore pebbles embedded in the ice."

(Click through to see the photo here.)
https://s3.amazonaws.com/Gigapans/EBC_Pumori_050112_8bit_FLAT/EBC_Pumori_050112_8bit_FLAT.html

The image is actually the product of more than 400 individual photos, each taken with a 300mm lens then stitched together, David Breashears, the photographer and team founder, explained to NPR.

Breashears sees changes in the glaciers on Mount Everest as a canary in the coalmine of the Himalayas, a sign of dangerous things to come if we don't take action. His team's work also includes comparing old and new photos taken from the same vantage point to illustrate climate change, an example of which can be seen below.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/19/mount-everest-gigapixel-photo_n_2331169.html

[niyad]

1. k and r for that amazing photo--thank you SO MUCH

[Suich]

2. I just saw this on the news and have been cruising around the site.

AMAZING!

[niyad]

3. chomolungma-goddess mother of the world

[Demo_Chris]

4. Amazing!

Amazing. You can see little people all over the place if you look carefully.

[Texin]

5. Where the hell is all the snow?

[truedelphi]

7. Confess my reaction was the same as yours - this is

The tallest peak on the earth, right?

I thought for a moment maybe the poster had put up a slope in Switzerland or somewhere.

What a revelation. So little snow.

My shock over the snow scarcity left me little energy to contemplate the hi resolution of the photo.

[Texin]

8. I think K2 is a tad higher, but what are the odds that it's also w/o much snow.

I found that pretty damn shocking.

[Electric Monk]

16. Everest is the highest peak on Earth

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight-thousander


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/Comparison_of_highest_mountains.svg

[brush]

17. K-2 is actually tad lower, by about a 840 feet. nt

[Fearless]

9. Snow needs moisture and likewise

Wind blows snow. Plus snow falls in greater quantities nearer to 32 degrees than colder because the air holds more moisture. And, the air is much thinner near the top and most snow clouds are below the peak.

[wordpix]

19. oh you global warming hair-on-fire faker, we know what you're up to

No, there's no global warming

[OnyxCollie]

6. That is cool. nt

[neverforget]

10. That is a really cool link! thanks!

[cheapdate]

11. Wow! Great link. That someone would climb that mountain is almost incomprehnsible.

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

12. Wicked Awesome!!!

Thanks for the link, I could spend all day looking at this.

This will be an additional Christmas present to my kids.

Thanks again!

[petronius]

13. Very cool - thanks for the link! Can certainly see why that ice fall is such a

dangerous route...

[Spitfire of ATJ]

14. Look at all the "base camps!!!

Everest has become a tourist trap.

[wordpix]

20. You can see groups of people going up from main base camp, looks like hundreds

When the base and even the mid-elevation of a mt. like Everest gets full of people, you know you've reached the pop. level where it's time to start using birth control. geesh

[Spitfire of ATJ]

22. One thing I found funny is there is one tent kind of set apart from the others....

....that guy likes to think he's doing it all on his own.

[toby jo]

15. Best shot I've seen of it

Not into mountain climbing at all, but it's cool that other folks get it.

[leveymg]

18. Zoom in - You can see the tents at the base camp, 1/2 way up the glacier.

Gives you an idea about the scale of the thing, and an appreciation for what it must be like to make that final ascent and to try to make it back down to camp in one day.

[wordpix]

21. follow the glacier up and you'll see lots of people and the ladders across the glacial chasms

not for me, but it's beautiful I'm sure

[Quixote1818]

23. A little bit to the right of those tents you can see the Yeti

http://www.google.com/url?source=imglanding&ct=img&q=&sa=X&ei=0V_eUJOBNJLJqQH0uYCwCg&ved=0CAkQ8wc&usg=AFQjCNFr3BuEj0rknIbxgE3YY2WgAv1QbA