If you’ve spent hours walking the little Street View man around your neighbourhood and think that the zoomed-in view of your apartment block is the coolest bit about Google Maps, then this bit of news is just for you.  After allowing people to explore digitally such sites as the Grand Canyon and the Amazon rainforest, the folks at Mountain View, California are now ready to let everyone see the sights that previously could only be seen by hardy mountaineers, after braving days and months of toil and danger.

Google Maps recently added some incredible pictures of four of the highest mountains across different continents to its Street View Collections. Mount Kilimanjaro (Africa), Mount Aconcagua (South America), Mount Elbrus (Europe) and Everest Base Camp (Asia), the mountains mapped, are four of a group of mountains known as the Seven Summits - the highest peaks on each of the seven continents.

Not just peaks, the images also capture places like the camp near Mount Elburus where abandoned Soviet-era fuel barrels are used as shelters and the Tengboche Monastery in Sagarmatha National Park, which is visited by climbers to seek blessings for a successful expedition.

Without having to worry about such things as avalanches, mudslides or altitude sickness, you can click and drag your way across the terrain and get more than just an idea of what it’s like to walk these trails. Surprisingly, capturing of these images did not require any special equipment. They were all collected using an ordinary tripod and digital camera with a fisheye lens.