"This gigapixel image of the Khumbu glacier was captured by David Breashears during the spring of 2012, from the Pumori viewpoint near Mount Everest. The Khumbu Icefall is clearly visible here, and one can easily see the hustle and bustle of Everest Base Camp below."
Have a look, zoom in and explore the highest mountain on earth from your desk! We thought it was pretty cool.
I love the various teams coming down the icefall. Some of the seracs higher up on the face look seriously precarious, I wouldn't be hanging about where the higher teams are!
The ice fall looks horrendous. It's funny, you read about it and see relatively close-up photos, and you kind of know it's not a nice place, but this pic gives a completely different, and much scarier, perspective.
RobLittle21 Dec 2012
In reply to kwoods: For a real sense of scale, zoom in to the Lhotse face and find Camp 3 and climbers! The detail in this photo is just brilliant!
Awesome, it gives a real sense of the scale of the mountains. If you zoom right in and scroll slowly it seems like the rock and snow goes on forever. Also gives a sense of how huge basecamp is, I had no idea.
skarabrae21 Dec 2012
In reply to Jimbo C: reminds me of the cheviots !!
Can someone explain a few things to me please. Higher up Tom says 'made by stitching 400 images'. The blurb says 'during spring 2012' - does that mean over the duration of spring or on one particular day during spring 2012?. How long does it take to take those images? How come the shadows are all correct (assuming they are)? Were they all taken at exactly the same time of day on a number of days? Am I just being clueless about these things?
Yes, I realise the stitching was done later, I was just interested in the physical task of taking so many images. Is it then just a matter of setting the camera up and panning from left to right several times, pressing the shutter every 100m or so?
Mind you, if this pic went head to head with the pic of the woman with her top off that's currently photo of the week, I'm not sure which would get most votes from UKCers...
There's something hovering above western one of the 2 peaks that sit west of the Summit of Everest as the picture looks at it - Would anyone know what sort of bird might be able to live at such high altitude?
I see it. On maximum zoom it looks like a long flat irregular rock, not a bird. But it's big: it's a long way off - seems to be much further away than the tents at base camp - yet nearly as big as them in apparent size. Maybe it's a flaw in the photo or whatever?
I think there are a few birds that are comfortable at HA. Google bar headed geese for starters. ALso I believe a solo Japanese climber on the Tibet side of Everest had to abort his summit push as birds ( crow/raven?) had raided his high camp supplies.
In reply to UKC News:
Wayhey, spring 2012, you might see me, albeit being a tourist just trekking to BC, but still. I'll have a good check later.
john_s3507 Feb 2013
In reply to abseil: Yeah, if you zoom about half way in you can see it already, whereas the people you can see crossing the ladders in the icefall section of the mountain cannot be seen - It's hard to judge the distance of the object to the people but it looks alot bigger!
Is that a dry glacier, or is there nothing much left of what was a glacier?
To me thats the shocking bit of the pic, a lack of glacier compared to what must have been there 20 or 30 years ago