Mt. Everest Climbing Deaths – 2016

I created this tour to help visualize some of the locations described in this recent (fantastic) write-up on a difficult subject from New York Times.

The sun was shining, but the air was dangerously cold and thin at 27,300 feet above sea level. A plume of snow clouded the ridge toward the summit of Mount Everest, so close above. When the Sherpas arrived — masks on their faces, oxygen tanks on their backs — the only movement on the steep face came from the dead man’s frayed jacket pockets. They were inside out and flapping in the whipping wind.

It took about 60-90 minutes to create the KML file and tour. I’m not entirely thrilled with the pace, but willing to chalk it up as another lesson learned without investing too much time making it entirely satisfactory.

Rendering the output was problematic — I discovered that with Google Earth Pro 7.3 touring it was very difficult to record with two segments in a row without another movement (FlyTo) sequence. It worked in some areas, but not others. The tour plays locally on the client just fine, but will not render in any format. Once I split the AnimatedUpdates up between two FlyTos, it rendered just fine.