Confusion Alert! This is just a normal picture of the amazing super high res interactive website photo! Image by David Breashears/GlacierWorks
Hey check out this astonishing 2 billion pixel interactive photo of Mount Everest on Glacierworks.org's Khumbu Glacier - Pumori Viewpoint 2012. On the website you can pan, zoom, and navigate through on this super cool website.
This gigapixel image of the Khumbu glacier was captured by David Breashears during the spring of 2012, from the Pumori viewpoint near Mount Everest. The Khumbu Icefall is clearly visible here, and one can easily see the hustle and bustle of Everest Base Camp below.
This picture here is just normal pix, but the one on the website is super-double-duper high resolution made up of 400 composite high resolution photos and you can click on the image to engage in "gigapixel navigation, then use the controls at the bottom of the screen to zoom and pan."
In A Stunning Two Billion Pixel Photo Is the Safest Way To Explore Mount Everest, Andrew Liszewski, of Gizmo has a better explanation of what is going on than I found on the original website.
Not only has filmmaker David Breashears climbed Mount Everest on five different occasions, he's visited the world's tallest peak 15 times in his career as he works to document the effects of climate change on the mountain. And fortunately for those of us who will never have the chance to see Everest in real life, let alone climb it, Breashers created a stunning gigapixel photo of the mountain and the Khumbu glacier earlier in the year.
The final composite, which can be panned, zoomed, and viewed on the GlacierWorks website, ... [is] so detailed you can apparently even see climbers making an ascent, and one of the base camps full of tents, all from the comfort and warmth of your couch.
A commenter named WampaCow provides some information on what we see in this overview photo:
The peak on the left in the background is Everest.
The peak in the middle is Lhotse (4th highest in the world at 27,940')
The peak on the right in the background with just the tip visible is Nuptse (25'790)
The pointy peak way on the right in the full image is Ama Dablam. It is, in my opinion, one of the coolest looking mountains in the world. Google images of it immediately.
The glacier in the middle is the Khumbu Glacier.
The Khumbu Icefall, one of the most dangerous areas of the popular routes, is the steep portion of the Khumbu glacier right in the middle (towards the bottom)
The most popular route (the Southeast Ridge) starts left of the Khumbu glacier, climbs the Khumbu Icefall into the Western Cwm, heads up the Lhotse Face (I believe this is the left visible portion of Lhotse) to the saddle between Everest and Lhotse and finally up the Southeast Ridge to the summit.
South Base Camp is just to the left of the Khumbu glacier at 17,598'. You can see hundreds of yellow tents there.
What a great way to wind down from a controversial and challenging day - by mountain climbing Mount Everest, with a glass of eggnog and Christmas cookies, from the warm, safe, comfort of my living room sofa. I hope you enjoyed this interlude of "now for something completely different."