Full Screen Panos Will Knock Your Socks Off

by Erik Olsen on

As an
avid panoramic photographer myself, I often check in on
Hans Nyberg’s full screen panorama site, which features some mind-blowing
interactive panoramic photos from around the world. The site is put
together by Nyberg, but features panoramics (most of them in QuickTimeVR) from photographers around the globe. Some of
them are photojournalistic in nature, like the vigil
around Arafat’s illness (now death), as well as those shot during the
US election. But others take you (almost
literally) to places both touristy and more obscure, revealing in a way only panoramic photos can, a deeper sense of a
place.

Some of the highlights are the collection of images shot by the globe-trotting
Tito Dupret, whose panos of World Heritage Sites is one of the best
interactive things on the Web (I’m not exaggerating…check it out). For the engaged traveler, there are also some
dizziness-inducing panos that I guarantee you’ll be sending
your friends. (one warning, the images can be processor intensive, so don’t send them to your friends using crappy
machines). For kicks, check out the panos shot at the recent Burning Man, some of which are
spectacular and do a better job of conveying the quirky absurdity of that event than any article I’ve ever read. And
whiile you’re at it, also check out the recent Equinox
project, which features global panos taken over a three day period in September.
I have one featured here as well.

The Alpinist

by Erik Olsen on

I was very impressed when I first came upon the online site for the climbing magazine
The Alpinist. The main page is beautiful, with a glorious photo of some dude
making a gnarly ascent up the face of a sun warmed rock face. But I dug around a bit and was pretty diappointed that
there was so little material available. The site provides access to old covers and to tables of contents, and there is
a nice section called climbing notes that gives
the low-down on climbing sites around the world, but there’s little access to editorial content with the exception of a
few well done features called “The Climbing Life” which
features brief, but beautiful, bits about various climbers and photographers. I dunno, I’m sure the editors don’t want
to cannibalize their hard copy sales, but I’d love to see more content from this excellent magazine online. Either way,
check it out, if just for some of the fine photos.

The Long Walk

by Erik Olsen on

Follow a group of  as they retrace the 8,000 mile slog of cavalry
officer Slavomir Rawicz. Rawicz, whose famous book,
The Long Walk, detailed his
capture by the Red Army in 1939 during the German-Soviet partition of Poland. He was sent to the Siberian Gulag along
with a group of Poles, Finns, Ukranians, Czechs, Greeks, as well as several English, French, and Americans caught up in
the fighting.  The story details how he and six others escaped a labor camp in Yakutsk clawed their way across
thousands of miles south to British India, where Rawicz reenlisted in the Polish army and fought against the Germans.
The expedition which got underway in September, retraces Rawicz steps from Moscow to Siberia, then through Mongolia,
China, Tibet and India. Along they way thr group is documenting with photos and journal entries. Whiile a bit sparse
now, the site promises a full multimedia tour when the trip ends in the first months of 2005.

Cell Phone Saves Climber

by Erik Olsen on

A climber and his friend fell over 1000 feet down
the face of Mt. Hood, and then tumbled into a 50 foot crevasse. Thanks only to his cell phone was he saved when he
called a rescue squad to come for them. The helicopters arrived and air lifted the two men to Portland where,
unfortunately, one of them died. While they were experienced climbers (and there’s no word on whether the accident
could have been prevented) the men made one key mistake: they failed to register before going up. Mt. Hood has seen its
share of climbing accidents, and so far this year there have been about a dozen rescue missions, according to one of
the S&R rangers.

Women on High

by None on

The Boston Globe has a small
gallery of photos from the recent
Women On High expedition. The
expedition by a team of five women was planned to honor and recreate the historic ascents of Mont Blanc, Europe’s
highest peak, by it’s first female conquorers: Maria Paradis in 1808 and Henriette d’Angeville in 1838. The climb
coincided with the publication of  “Women on High: Pioneers of Mountaineering,” by Rebecca A.
Brown, also a member of the team.

The entire team suceessfully summitted during a one-day weather window.  ”We were exhilarated. We toasted the
women who came before us. The level of respect I had for them grew enormously.”