I'll admit it: I have perfectionist tendencies. Not that everything (anything?) I do is perfect - far from it. But, I do have some mutated, recessive gene (thanks, family) that makes me get obsessive about certain things, trying to improve then perfect them to the point of insanity.
One such thing is the Virtual Everest project I've been working on. A few weeks back, I got the project built out to Chhukung village in the Khumbu Valley. I thought it would be quick work to "move" the trek up to Everest's Khumbu Basecamp and beyond. But, just as a difficult Icefall has gotten in the way of climbers this year, my desire to get it perfect has gotten in my way.
What does that look like? Well, it starts with scouring tens of thousands of photos to find panoramas I never processed, to find others I had long forgotten (like the 1993 series of five print photos from a visit to Nangkartshang), and to re-edit and produce ones I did years back but can benefit from new tech and skill. Then, once loaded into Pano2VR, the obsession grows:
- What is that distant peak? Work to identify it using various virtual panorama viewpoint programs, photo archives online (especially Guenter Seyfferth's website), and more.
- Has it been climbed? Dive into the Himalayan Database, scour back issues of the American Alpine Journal, Alpine Journal (UK), Himalayan Journal, and online publications. Read reports and try to summarize them.
- Is there a feature - like the Lhotse-Nuptse Wall - that deserves special recognition and routes delineated? Same as above.
- Is the skin working well? Find problems, glitches, things that I just don't like, and then try - as a non-programmer hack - to figure out how to fix them.
- Wait, it's not immersive without audio! Go to various websites to find sound effects that fit the bill, scour my own archive of video files for the right fit and extract audio, place relevant sounds into relevant panoramas, do my best to make it realistic and directional, and move on.
- Export the project, look at it in various browsers...and find errors, issues, things I don't like. Jump back to any one or all of the points above.
Anyway, the good news? Well, you can now go with me all the way to Basecamp, with visits along the way to Nangkartshang, Kala Pattar, Pumori Camp 1, and a nice 360-view from just above Basecamp in the lower Khumbu Icefall.
And, I'm busy working on more. I've gotten panoramas ready for the next phase - EBC to Camp 1 atop the Khumbu Icefall, and should have those out in a couple days. Then we'll continue up the Southeast Ridge to the summit, take a wander up part of the West Ridge route, veer out to the north in Tibet and climb the Northeast Ridge, and also make a visit to the Kangshung Face on the east side of Everest.
I'm also working on an interactive 3D model of the main Everest region. If I can figure it all out, this will provide a much better, more "real" way of interacting with the mountain, diving into different views, and more.
Like climbing the mountain itself, it'll take some time. But, one step at a time, one panorama at a time, we'll get there!
To dive into the route from the Amphu Laptsa to Everest Basecamp, visit that section's dedicated page here: Amphu Laptsa to Everest Basecamp Virtual Trek. If this is your first visit, I highly recommend starting at, well, the start, in Kathmandu, and following the whole trek through the lower foothills; you can find that adventure on its page, Mahakulung Muddhi-Kongmedingma Virtual Trek.
