I love taking friends on hikes to mountain peaks. Partially because I’m a legitimate peak-junkie, but also because I like to look smart and outdoorsy by pointing out the other named peaks in the area.
Hey, we all like to look knowledgeable.
And now there’s a better way to learn the peaks than diligent map-studying (which I’m not opposed to, either) — it’s called Hey, What’s That?
It’s one of the most comprehensive Google Maps mashups I’ve seen. You can choose from a preselected number of peaks and views, or take the time to enter your own location on Google Maps. After doing a little calculating, the site will give you a 3-D panorama of the view from that location, with all the named peaks marked and labeled. It’ll also give you your latitude and longitude, elevation, and a horizontal profile of your line of sight.
The site will also show you your line of sight on a Google satellite map, along with all the info on nearby summits, like their bearings, distance from you, and elevation.
If that’s not enough, you can download all this information in a GPX waypoint file for your GPS, see it in full 3-D in Google Earth, print it out, or get the lists sent to your email or phone.
And if you’re really particular about planning your outings, you can turn on a “Visibility Cloak” that will shade all of the areas of the map you’ll be able to see from your location. Just note that it doesn’t take smog into its calculations.
Tags: maps
