Lyell Canyon (preview)

Started by Harvey Birdman, May 10, 2007, 01:11:07 AM

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Harvey Birdman

I suppose this won't impress the aficionados, but...

This is based on GeoTiff data from Lyell Canyon in Yosemite Park, Ca. The two mountains in the distance are Mt. Lyell and Mt. Maclure, the two highest points in Yosemite. (Lyell, leftmost of the two, is a tad taller.)

These mountains can't be seen from any road. Of all the hordes that visit Yosemite, very few ever see this or even know that these mountains and this little environment exists. It's an 8 mile (~13k) walk from the nearest road (Tuolomne Meadows) to this vantage point - after finally rounding a corner in the canyon, this view opens up in front of you. The elevation at this location is about 8950 feet or so (~2730 m). The peaks are over 13100 (just under 4000m). The largest glacier in the northern Sierra is (or was!) the Lyell glacier; again, most people that visit Yosemite have no clue that there are glaciated 13000 footers out there in the back country.

I soloed Lyell 10 years ago, and soloed to within 150 vertical feet or so of the summit of Maclure. Would have topped out except a bear had raided my base two days earlier and stolen all my food. I was running on empty and light-headed from the altitude and lack of food, facing an extended stretch of exposed unprotected 3-4th class rock... so I went back to camp and polished off the cognac. (The booze had been in the tent with me when the bear came calling.)

I'm working on a skybox shot from the summit of Lyell. Won't be as fancy as BigBen's Teton stuff, but it should be interesting - you can see down into Yosemite valley from way above and far away - Half Dome is almost a vertical mile below and quite some distance off to the west.

So anyway, I thought some of you might enjoy the view. Like I said, it's not one that people see all the time, like Half Dome or El Cap.

ProjectX

holy bleached colours batman! (They're a bit bright aren't they?)

Oh yeah, and this scene could do with some nice shadows.

I appreciate that for the preview you probably left them off, but just in case. :p

rcallicotte

Harvey, love it.  Exploration is my childhood.  I lived next door to miles of woods and went there daily for one reason or another and mostly for no reason at all.  :)
So this is Disney World.  Can we live here?

sonshine777

Good start Harvey, I lived in Mono County just to the East of that end of Yosemite. Did you ever go visit Mono Lake?

Sethren

My stay in Yosemite back in april was way to short.  ;D  I probably, well hopefully would have wanted to see those peaks at some point. Yosemite Park covers such a huge area and when i realized that Yosemite Valley covers such a tiny part of the overall park i thought WOW is it any wonder those mountains get missed.

http://www.berann.com/panorama/yosemite_l.jpg

http://130.166.124.2/ca_panorama_atlas/page11/files/page11-1016-full.jpg

http://www.sanjung.us/pct/H-5-sep.2.3.4.5.6.-04/FF3S3283.jpg

Harvey Birdman

Sethren - what cool images! The aerial one is a trip - can you pick out Tuolomne and the Lyell Canyon? The photo send chills up my back - I spent a LOT of time kicking around that piece of back country. I've soloed nearly every peak in the area (Maclure being the notable exception - never did get back to finish that one off.)

sonshine - Yeah, spent a lot of time kicking around Lee Vining. I rented a house there for a while one summer to use as a base. Spent one baking summer afternoon four-wheeling between Bodie and the lake - some of the most desolate country I've ever played in. Have you ever read Muir's 'My First Summer in the Sierra'? He gives some pretty unflattering descriptions of the native Mono Indians.

Calico - Wait till you see the summit skybox. It should be pretty cool. I actually get a better look at the countryside than I did when I climbed it - the day I got to the summit it was socked in and snowing.

rcallicotte

That last photo reminds me of an Alaskan glacier.


Quote from: Sethren on May 11, 2007, 05:30:03 AM
My stay in Yosemite back in april was way to short.  ;D  I probably, well hopefully would have wanted to see those peaks at some point. Yosemite Park covers such a huge area and when i realized that Yosemite Valley covers such a tiny part of the overall park i thought WOW is it any wonder those mountains get missed.

http://www.berann.com/panorama/yosemite_l.jpg

http://130.166.124.2/ca_panorama_atlas/page11/files/page11-1016-full.jpg

http://www.sanjung.us/pct/H-5-sep.2.3.4.5.6.-04/FF3S3283.jpg
So this is Disney World.  Can we live here?

Harvey Birdman

Sethren - I actually may have to take back my statement that Lyell can't be seen from a road. The (north) side in the rendering can't be, but I think the west side may be visible from the road that runs up to Glacier Point, up above the valley. I never went up to Glacier Point but I wouldn't be surprised if you could see it from there.

And now that I think about it, you CAN see the north side from the road to Saddlebag Lake. That isn't in the park, but nonetheless.

;)

Sethren

Unfortunately, Glacier Point was closed when i was there.

Tuolomne and the Lyell Canyon??? Nah!   I will have to study it more later when i have time.

Harvey Birdman

#9
Check this out - I believe I've found the location Sethren's picture was taken from. The rendering needs work, of course - some decent boulder fields for a start, and there is some inaccuracy in the heightmap, etc - but it sure looks like the spot, doesn't it?

;D

sjefen

Very cool :) It sure looks like it.
Looking forward for the updates ;)
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sonshine777

Quote from: Harvey Birdman on May 11, 2007, 07:12:14 AM
sonshine - Yeah, spent a lot of time kicking around Lee Vining. I rented a house there for a while one summer to use as a base. Spent one baking summer afternoon four-wheeling between Bodie and the lake - some of the most desolate country I've ever played in. Have you ever read Muir's 'My First Summer in the Sierra'? He gives some pretty unflattering descriptions of the native Mono Indians.

No I haven't read that book. You mentioned Bodie, my dad went to kindergarten in the schoolhouse the last year it was open. My grandpa was working for a company the was processing the tailing from the mines there, they didn't get much so they shut down the operation and left.

sonshine777

Quote from: Harvey Birdman on May 13, 2007, 07:49:09 PM
Check this out - I believe I've found the location Sethren's picture was taken from. The rendering needs work, of course - some decent boulder fields for a start, and there is some inaccuracy in the heightmap, etc - but it sure looks like the spot, doesn't it?

;D
Do you have the DEM for that area in a .ter file?
:) This would be a great opportunity to have a recreate this photo contest. :)

Harvey Birdman

#13
Pretty cool about your Dad and going to school in Bodie. For those of you that don't know, Bodie is a ghost town. I think it's now a National Historic Area or some such - the parks dept. maintains it.

Yeah, I created a .ter of everything from the June Lake area to south of Mammoth, and from about the center of the lake over to the west side of the park. It's a touch over 8Mb, too big to upload here. If there's any interest we can figure out a way to distribute it.

And sure, now you can all show me up. Fine. I can deal with it. Really.
:P

;D

<edit> Twin Lakes at the the northern edge, not June Lake. </edit>

sonshine777

Quote from: Harvey Birdman on May 14, 2007, 03:37:48 PM
Pretty cool about your Dad and going to school in Bodie. For those of you that don't know, Bodie is a ghost town. I think it's now a National Historic Area or some such - the parks dept. maintains it.

Yeah, I created a .ter of everything from the June Lake area to south of Mammoth, and from about the center of the lake over to the west side of the park. It's a touch over 8Mb, too big to upload here. If there's any interest we can figure out a way to distribute it.

And sure, now you can all show me up. Fine. I can deal with it. Really.
:P

;D

Are you registered on the Terranut website? If you are you could upload it to the upload section there.
http://www.terranuts.com/forums/downloads.php?do=cat&id=9
Or maybe Ashunder
http://www.ashundar.com/
I know Old_Blaggard talks about being able to post stuff there. :)