Yosemite National Park’s El Capitan isn’t just the world’s most famous rock wall, but the official name of Apple’s latest desktop operating system, too. Coincidentally or not, Google Maps has teamed up with legendary climbers Lynn Hill, Alex Honnold and Tommy Caldwell to capture an awesome panorama tour of El Capitan’s epic 3,000 feet climb.
You can explore it inside your browser with Google Maps’ marvelous vertical Street View mode offering high-quality 360-degree photography of the rocks from the climbers’ perspective that can be rotated and panned around.
The project posed some rather absurd challenges as the team had to mount special 360-degree cameras thousands of feet up the world’s most iconic rock wall.
“After some testing, we used our tried-and-true climbing gear like cams and ropes to make sure the camera wouldn’t fall to the ground in the middle of our Street View collection,” explains the Google Maps team.
They created two sets of vertical Street Views: one depicting climbers in iconic spots up the El Capitan’s sheer vertical face and the other providing 360-degree panoramas of the entire climb.
To enjoy the virtual tour, visit this URL in your desktop browser.
Click the Start The Climb button and then use a slider in the right column to select some of El Capitan’s most memorable climbing spots. Once you select a desired height, you’ll be presented with a pro-quality photo of the spot that’s bound to give you vertigo.
Now click the Explore button to rotate the spot in 360-degree freedom.
Options at the bottom of the screen allow you to embed the entire spot or just a single panorama shot, with each 360-degree panorama fully customizable with custom informational content, audio and video and more.
Other options at the bottom provide access to video interviews with the National Park experts who works to preserve and protect special places like El Capitan, including a behind-the-scenes video, an archive of other awesome Street View spots and more.
The whole El Capitan thing on Google Maps is highly engaging.
I urge you to give this incredible vertical Street View a whirl before sharing your impressions with others down in the comments.
Source: Google Lat Long blog