Summit Mont Blanc from your sofa with Google Street View
360° videos capture ice-climbing daredevils and picturesque panoramas
Google clearly wasn’t content with national parks and undersea exploration – it’s now taking Street View mountain climbing.
After summiting Yosemite National Park’s El Capitan last year, Google has teamed up with world-famous skiers, mountain climbers, hill runners and alpine photographers to create a Street View of Mont Blanc, Western Europe’s highest peak.
This isn’t your typical climb, though. You can follow speed record holder Kilian Jornet’s route up and down the mountain – his fastest time is an incredible four hours and 57 minutes to reach the summit and get down again.
Record-setting ice climber Ueli Steck took a Street View camera on a more direct route, ascending a serac of ice. It’s definitely not recommended viewing if big heights churns your stomach.
You can go at your own pace, too. Mountain guide Korra Pesce carried the Street View Trekker up and down Mont Blanc’s Goûter Route, and you can click through the entire journey in full 360° first-person.
The Google Maps team has gone into more detail about the making of the trip on the official Maps blog, but it was more than an adrenaline rush.
The adventure was meant to create a digital record of Mont Blanc, which is receding because of climate change. As temperatures rise, the glacier and other parts of the mountain are quickly changing, so the footage has effectively become a time capsule for future mountaineers.
If coping with freezing cold temperatures and summiting 15,000ft mountain ranges aren’t part of your usual Wednesday morning routine, you can start exploring from the comfort of your desk right here.
Tom Morgan-Freelander
Deputy Editor 
