Yosemite’s El Capitan is one of the most famous rock-climbing locations in the world. Once considered impossible to climb, the 3000-foot route is still one of the most difficult climbs around. So naturally when the Google Street View team asked El Capitan veterans Lynn Hill, Alex Honnold and Tommy Caldwell to attempt it with the added challenge of 360-degree camera gear, they jumped at the chance.
Climbing is all about flirting with the impossible and pushing the boundaries of what you think you can be done. Capturing Street View imagery 3,000 feet up El Capitan proved to be an extension of that, especially when you take a camera meant for the inside of a restaurant and mount it thousands of feet up the world’s most iconic rock wall.
The imagery captured combines conventional stills of the climbers at work with the 360-degree cameras needed to allow you and I to join them in a virtual climb of the entire route …
With Apple in the process of upgrading its current Mac operating system version from Yosemite to El Capitan, it’s possible that Google’s choice of location for its first vertical Street View footage was a slightly mischievous one.
Check out the video below, then start the climb here. I used to rock-climb, but I almost got vertigo while sat at my computer …
Google Street View tours have been taking us increasingly off the beaten track of late, including trips underwater, along a canal skateway and on a camel trip across the desert.
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