Google Earth Images

Google Earth Images ^*

^* by Adam Helman

Google Earth has considerable potential for climbing and peakbagging, especially in the formative period when an overall driving and approach route is defined. To illustrate, several screen captures from Google Earth sessions are provided here in addition to links for Google Earth files dedicated to specific peak lists.

Holding-down the mouse key atop a county highpoint's square icon provides the highpoint identity, elevation, and its WGS84 latitude and longitude.

I recommend that you check "roads" in the left panel of display options. The road grid for approaching county highpoints will be superimposed atop the image.

Conversion to UTM coordinates and/or NAD27 datum is available with this online calculator.

Files must be saved to your hard drive prior to opening with Google Earth. Exactly how this is achieved depends on the browser used.

download Google Earth (free)

Statewide Files

All fifty states have coordinates available for their county highpoints.

Google Earth kmz files were provided by Tom Dunigan through a set of PERL scripts which extracted coordinates from state trip report index pages. After conversion to text format, Adam Helman hand-edited these files to make the county and contour names more understandble and user-friendly in general, i.e. "DenverCityandCounty01" becomes "Denver City and County".

Mouse-click any colored state for its Google Earth county highpoint file.

Regional and Contiguous USA Files

Mouse-click either map or text to obtain the corresponding Google Earth file.

	Northeastern states (New England plus New York)
	mid Atlantic states (Pennsylvania through North Carolina; D.C.)
	Upper Midwest states
	Eastern states (Mississippi River to the Atlantic Ocean)
	Four Corners states (Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah)
	northern Rockies (Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming)
	far southwest (Arizona, California, and Nevada)
	Pacific Northwest (Idaho, Oregon, and Washington)
	Western states (Rocky Mountains to the Pacific ocean)
	Contiguous states

State Highpoint File

Mouse-click here to obtain a Google Earth file showing all fifty state highpoints. All possible contenders are displayed for the relevant states - Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska and Wisconsin.

Links to More Google Earth Files

county highpoints on Google Maps - Not Google Earth but a good interface nonetheless.
Tom Dunigan created much of the content; while Andy Martin hosts these maps, having administrative privileges for the relevant subdirectory at this website. E-mail him with any comments or questions.
Beware of the Mercator projection which makes Greenland appear larger than South America.
worldwide ultra prominence list - by Aaron Maizlish
This file must be seen for belief. It is wonderful for any prominence-oriented climber.
Andean ultra prominences ranked by difficulty - by Rob Woodall using information
extracted from John Biggar's book The Andes - A Guide for Climbers.
Pushpin color code: green = F (facile, "easy"); blue = PD (peu difficile, "a little difficult");
pink/magenta = AD (assez difficile, "somewhat difficult"); red/orange = at least D (difficile, "difficult").
Mr. Biggar's ratings are based only on technical climbing issues and/or objective dangers (poor rock, volcanic activity etc...). They do not account for the often very high elevations, and thus the latter must additionally be accounted for in assessing overall difficulty.
Times for each peak are provided in days assuming one is already acclimatized, and includes travel from and return to a sizable community. Thus for Chile's highest peak we have "Ojos del Salado 6893m P3688 F/PD 4D", signifying that 4 days are required out of Copiapó (of which just 2 are spent actually climbing). The actual time for an Ojos expedition is more like 2 weeks as one is generally not acclimatized. Hence the cited times generally need extending for acclimatization if one has come directly from abroad without having climbed other peaks beforehand.
Norway 600+ meter prominences - by Petter Bjorstad
Ultras are marked with yellow, 1000+ meter prominence peaks are red, 600+ meter prominence peaks are blue; while the borderline peaks (around 600 meter prominence) are marked by a green symbol. A description with links is available.
Petter Bjorstad's worldwide peak list - Not Google Earth but a good interface nonetheless. Beware of the Mercator projection which makes Greenland appear larger than South America.
Arizona 1,000+ foot prominences - by Richard Carey
northern California 1,000+ foot prominences - by Richard Carey
southern California 1,000+ foot prominences - by Richard Carey
Oregon 2,000+ foot prominences - by Richard Carey
Baja 2000+ foot prominences - by Richard Carey
Death Valley Peaks List - by Richard Carey
California Fire Lookouts - by Richard Carey
England Top 50 Peaks - by Richard Carey
Scotland Top 51 Peaks - by Richard Carey
Wales Top 50 Peaks - by Richard Carey
Scotland, The Munros - by Richard Carey
Kilimanjaro, Rongai Route - by Richard Carey

Sample Images for Climbing and Peakbagging

These screen captures are available my mouse-clicking the small embedded images; and demonstrate the utility of Google Earth for trip planning and climbing.

Grand Teton looking east. The lower Saddle is at lower right; the Owens-Spalding Route climbing from there to the upper left.

General view of Mount Olympus with the Blue Glacier at lower left, the Snow Dome at center, and the summit area at upper right.

The Mount Olympus summit seen from the north. The steep, final rock pitch is made quite evident in this image.

The relative locations for all 28 Essex County, Virginia contours.

Close-up of four Essex County, Virginia contours looking southeast. At high magnification contour locations relative to artificial structures provides quite useful and significant information.

Klyuchevskaya Volcano, an Earth Fifty Finest prominence located in the Kamchatka Peninsula of eastern Siberia.

Heart of the Karakoram Range as seen from space. Note the Baltoro Glacier at center, flowing south from K2. Additional 8,000 meter peaks are seen in this view; with "pins" marking ultra prominence summits.

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