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Virtually Climb El Capitan With Google's First Vertical Street View 32

mpicpp writes: Google Maps is incorporating its first vertical Street View by allowing users to virtually climb El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. To capture the 3,000-foot ascent up El Capitan Google relied on the skills of mountain climbers Lynn Hill, Alex Honnold and Tommy Caldwell. "People around the world will now be able to virtually experience the unique act of ascending a 3,000-foot cliff by going on a self-directed, vertical climb," the Mountain View, Calif., company said.
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Virtually Climb El Capitan With Google's First Vertical Street View

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  • by SeaFox ( 739806 ) on Wednesday June 24, 2015 @06:59PM (#49981839)

    Did they pick this on purpose because of the forthcoming OSX release?

    • by nawcom ( 941663 ) on Wednesday June 24, 2015 @07:21PM (#49981993) Homepage
      nah El Capitan is pretty popular; it's a favorite with rock climbers and base jumpers. It makes it the perfect example to apply to this vertical streetview concept on, and with it being a few hours away from Google HQ, it makes sense. I'm actually curious if this project predates the public announcement of OS X 10.11, though I wouldn't be surprised if they knew about it anyway.
  • by PPH ( 736903 ) on Wednesday June 24, 2015 @07:27PM (#49982039)

    Had me thinking of something completely different [youtube.com].

  • by Spy Handler ( 822350 ) on Wednesday June 24, 2015 @08:01PM (#49982237) Homepage Journal

    https://www.google.com/maps/@3... [google.com]

    TFA doesn't link to it, so I had to some additional mouse clicking and text parsing to find it.

  • I'm waiting for the Google Elevator

  • went to El Capitan high school. Now that I'm 57 checking out a google link to it seems a bit creepy.
  • As someone who has climbed El Cap 4 times, I can say that it's not going to feel quite the same watching it in 3D than to actually do it. Eating vs watching foodies pics? Being in love vs watching porn?
    • by Anonymous Coward

      Of those 3 watching porn is definitely better than being in love. Now when will I be able to get a 3d printed sex bot?

    • As someone who has climbed El Cap 4 times, I can say that it's not going to feel quite the same watching it in 3D than to actually do it.

      As someone who has climbed El Cap 0 times, I can say that it's not going to feel quite the same watching it in 3D than to actually do it.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Wouldn't it of been easier to fly a drone up the face? Would make it easier to get a full 3d map of every face of the mountain inc the bits normal climbers can't climb.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    I checked it out, and didn't feel it was very well done. I understand getting all the photos is nowhere near as easy as it is on a street, but there are too few photos to make it a good experience. When you click somewhere, you jump so far that you really can't tell where you progressed to 90% of the time. It just feels like you jumped to a different random photo. Then when I was at the top (which is still sloped, but nowhere near vertical), I clicked around a few time. Several time I clicked somewhere that

    • Exactly. You are not "climbing" but zooming in and out at every stage. Unlike with a street view where there is this fluid motion. Somebody should have Q/A this before releasing it.
    • Agreed. As a climber (haven't done El Cap yet, but have done some long Valley climbs), this is pretty lame. The distance between the images is way too far. I want a real, seamless view that I can follow up a route and see all the details. I want to be able to look at the rock, turn the camera and see all around. Look up, look down, find the next hold, see where my feet would be. You know, all the stuff that makes climbing fun.

      Trip reports on Supertopo (www.supertopo.com) are way better than this if you want

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