Hi Paul,
You've got a great start on your story! Here are some suggestions:
- I think the first thing you should consider is combining several sections in your story to make each a bit more substantial. Think about making sections for chapters in your story rather than having one section per photo/map/video. Move some of the videos and photos from the main stage and insert them between paragraphs of your narrative in the side panel.
- Use one of your best photos as the main stage photo for the home section. That is what your readers will see first, so capture their attention with a great visual. You can put your dream mountain website image in the side panel if you still want that to appear in the home section.
- Try to stay away from filler text like "here is a map that..." and "here is a photo that..." and simply tell your story.
- I agree with your idea of adding 3D maps! Here's a blog that will show you how to add one to your Map Journal.
- Adding photos in pop-ups is not always the best since the photos will be very small. What you could do is create a Map Tour, which will showcase your photos nicely with a map, and then embed the Map Tour in the main stage of one of the sections of your Map Journal. Here's a blog showing how to do embed one story map inside another.
Also, have you tried our latest story map app, Story Map Cascade? I think your story would be great for Cascade since you could create a web scene with slides capturing different vantage points of your climbs and tour your readers through each one in an immersive section.
Hope this is helpful!
Owen
Owen Evans
Lead Product Engineer | StoryMaps