Microsoft and GlacierWorks team up to bring Everest to your screen

GlacierWorks, founded by renowned mountaineer David Breashears, has joined forces with Internet Explorer to put the world's highest peak at your fingertips with Everest: Rivers of Ice. The exploration platform works in any browser, but it's specifically optimized for IE 10's touch-based technology. In addition to bringing the Himalayas to your screen, Microsoft is using the project to show off the potentiality of its Rich Interactive Narratives (RIN) interface, cooked up by the the teams at Microsoft Research in both India and Redmond. Using RIN, developers can design nonlinear narratives that weave together different types of multimedia, like multitouch interactive maps with embedded video, gigapixel panoramas and data visualizations. GlacierWorks' project incorporates all of these, as it allows you to explore Everest's valleys while learning about glacier activity and climate change in the Himalayas. If a trip to Nepal is out of your budget, you can watch a preview in the video after the break.