Google Maps now allows you to explore Everest, Kilimanjaro and other great mountains

Google this week unveiled the ability to virtually explore, via Google Maps, some of the most famous mountains on Earth, including Aconcagua (South America), Kilimanjaro (Africa), Mount Elbrus (Europe) and Everest Base Camp (Asia).

These mountains belong to the group of peaks known as the Seven Summits—the highest mountain on each of the seven continents. While there’s nothing quite like standing on the mountain, with Google Maps you can instantly transport yourself to the top of these peaks and enjoy the sights without all of the avalanches, rock slides, crevasses, and dangers from altitude and weather that mountaineers face.

Start your adventure on Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro, the dormant volcano known as the Roof of Africa. See amazing views of the highest freestanding mountain in the world covered in snow just three degrees south of the equator.

It's pretty amazing. I attended the Explorer's Club 2013 dinner over the weekend with people who have actually summited these mountains (the experience of being a fly on the wall during that dinner is a blog post all its own), and this is a great tool for the many of us who won't make it up there in our lifetimes. And, for young people whose horizons need expanding.

Official Blog: Explore Everest, Kilimanjaro and more with Google Maps.

• [KevinRaposo]

  I’m on top of the world! 

• [Michael]

  I’m reading Gordon Korman’s Everest adventure series right now. Base camp looks nothing like I imagined.

• [nox]

  This is very cool. The reality of climbing Everest is quite different from the fantasy.

  http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2012/05/theres-a-ridiculous-traffic-jam-of-people-trying-to-climb-mount-everest/

  http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/30/everest-mountaineer-crowding-hobby-tragedy

  • [SomeGuyNamedMark]

    Yup, now just add in a heart racing even when sitting still, feeling dizzy if you get up suddenly, and having to breath about 5 times for every step.

    • [Antinous / Moderator]

      Maybe they could sell scratch-and-snitch cards with odors like yak, yak butter, yak dung, yak stew, yak potsticker, damp yak fur sweater and roasted barley.

      • [niktemadur]

        Don’t forget that ever popular Everest Base Camp Trail staple:  noodles with ketchup, or as the Sherpas call it, spaghetti.
        Namche Bazaar, a spectacular village in the gateway to the Himalayas, seems to have some pretty decent food, pastries in particular, maybe the altitude affects the bread making process in some special way?

        • [Antinous / Moderator]

          Plenty of people in the US call noodles and ketchup spaghetti, too.

          Namche is where we bought our quarter yak to carry around unrefrigerated for a week.  They did have some sort of distilled spirit there, though, so that was alright.

• [OtherMichael]

  Thank g-d for this, now I have something to look at when Google Reader is shuttered.

• [timquinn]

  Is it OK if I continue to be unimpressed by mountain climbers? 

• [simonbarsinister]

  I climbed Kilimanjaro several years ago. There was an exhausting part crossing a flat plain of volcanic ash just after coming out of the jungle. After returning home I watched my videos and had to laugh at myself. I was moving about 1 mile an hour wheezing with effort while my native guides were walking around clearly bored with my slow pace. I had remembered that crossing as an ordeous trek, but looking back it was very flat and it was only the low oxygen that made it seem so hard.

• [pjcamp]

  I’m starting to think Google Maps is just an excuse for Google employees to write off their vacations.