Hello Gang,

I continue to fool around with Google Earth and the associated browser plugin to develop 3-D virtual tours through spectacular mountain terrain. After last summer’s climbing, I used these tools to describe the trips I did with my mountaineering club, the Vulgarian Ramblers. Recently, I created a couple of tours to describe two trips we’ve proposed for this summer. I found that going through the process helped me do a better job of selecting campsites and proposing itinerary details. I also hope that viewing the tour will familiarize my climbing partners with the terrain in ways that aren’t possible simply by studying topographic maps.

Assuming you have a broadband internet connection, I encourage you to let your browser install the Google Earth plugin (the download screen should appear automatically) and view the following example tour:

http://tinyurl.com/yjt2u73

As mentioned on my tour player page, I have written up guidelines for creating these 3-D tours and using my player to display them:

http://www.vulgarianramblers.org/tours/ ... _tours.php

I hope some of you find these tools useful,

- Chris Schneider

i was thinking about doing some of the these very things myself. Thank you so much for the resource! I'll have to see what else your climbing club has been up to!

from above: I downloaded the plug-in in a few seconds. 'tweren't nuthin.

Some people can "see" topo maps really well. I guess I can because I've struggled with others when trying to talk about what the topo shows. You just get used to it. It's like the guy in the Matrix: maybe you see a stream of numbers, but all I see is blonde, redhead, brunette . . .

Hello FortMental,

Thanks for taking the time to provide detailed input!

FortMental wrote:I've tried the Google Earth tour thing and like it a lot. Seems to me that SP is the perfect venue for it.

I dunno. I think Google Earth 3-D tours are probably better suited for trip planning and trip reports than for feature/area/range descriptions. Route descriptions could certainly benefit from this, but personally, I tend to shy away from getting too much beta. I enjoy route finding as long as I’ve got the key landmark descriptions in hand.

FortMental wrote:1) building such a page is nothing short of a major pain in the ass

Agreed. I invested a lot of time in my tour building guide page, but (just like writing up a good SummitPost page), content development takes time.

FortMental wrote:2) Opening the site (with the plugin) with anything less than improved broadband is pretty frickin' slow.
3) Not many people have the GE Plugin, so the effort is wasted
4) Seems that most people here would rather look at topo maps of an area....for the life of me I can't figure that one out!
5) No uniform map standard yet exists so that the Euros would want to do such a thing

My tour player page will automatically download and install the plugin if the user doesn't already have it (with approval, of course).

FortMental wrote:I've included a GE map of the La Luz Trail in NM..... and seems that no one is interested, based on the forums generated by just this topic. http://www.summitpost.org/route/157566/La-Luz-Trail.html

In looking at what you've built, it looks awesome!

Thanks for your kinds words. I found your tour useful as well.

FortMental wrote:But it's more gee-whiz kinda stuff....I can't use your tour (as it is) to help me decide if I'm going to spend a week of vacation time going there.

I assume you’re speaking as a SummitPost user, rather than as a potential participant in my specific trip this summer. In my view, the tour would help my own climbing buddies figure out what they’d be getting into if they opt in.

FortMental wrote:And there's the rub:

The tour includes substantial vertical exaggeration and doesn't include photos taken from the various points of interest. If you load up those photos and make them part of the tour..... then its usefulness goes up, as does the amount of work required, as well as the download time.

Again, I shy away from that level of beta myself, but (as you say) there’s nothing preventing other tour authors from including such content.

Thanks again for your input on the subject!

- Chris

Hello Matt,

Thanks for the nice things you said about my tour.

Matt Worster wrote:Some people can "see" topo maps really well. I guess I can because I've struggled with others when trying to talk about what the topo shows. You just get used to it. It's like the guy in the Matrix: maybe you see a stream of numbers, but all I see is blonde, redhead, brunette . . .

I think that being able to visualize topography in 3-D just by looking at a topographic map is an essential mountaineering skill. I just think you get even more out of seeing the topography displayed in 3-D before you head out into the wilderness.

Best Regards,

- Chris