It's a pile of mining waste. Want to go skiing on it?
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- Опубликовано: 12 июн 2022
- Monte Kaolino, in Bavaria, Germany, is 35 million tonnes of quartz sand, piled up over the years from a nearby kaolin mine. In the 1960s, one guy just turned up with skis, and now half a century later it's a theme-park destination for sandboarders and skiiers. ■ More: www.montekaolino.eu/
Location camera: Moritz Janisch
Producer: Marcel Fenchel www.fenchel-janisch.com/
Editor: Dave Stevenson davestevenson.co.uk
🟥 MORE FROM TOM: www.tomscott.com/
(you can find contact details and social links there too)
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👥 THE TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES: / techdif
And if anyone's wondering, after last week's Plus video: the Alpine Coaster had a brake. That's why I was okay with it!
wait 10 days ago how, the video legit realized 30 seconds alot
@@happydanny6668 It’s on a scheduled post.
And you actually are a fan of Roller Coasters now? Didn't really know wheter it was irony in the end.
@@happydanny6668 you can upload videos in advance and leave them private until release day
If there was ever a Tom Scott travel guide book I'd buy it in a heartbeat
Facts
@Don't Read My Profile Photo alright
That's an excellent idea actually, hopefully he or his team sees this!
It's basically the atlas Obscura at this point
now there's an idea
This feels like a scenario straight out of roller coaster tycoon. Build a successful amusement park on and around this giant mountain of sand.
Dynamite dunes!
@@00chips was kinda hard, even though you had unlimited money.
This is Dynamite Dunes, mine pit & everything. It's the second scenario in Rollercoaster Tycoon 1.
@@Mlpzeldafan011100 wasn't it from RCT2?
It would be the epitome "sandbox mode"
That ending was so great. I was thinking to myself "Tom is going to do sweet jump turn thing and board down the mountain!". Then you did what I would have done.
haha sandboards are honestly the worst, there's so much friction you can barely get the board moving fast enough to go down the hill without stopping. It's just a gimmick
@toijg avnnr wdym?
Tom went from being deathly afraid of roller coasters to a coaster junkie in the span of one video. Incredible.
Tom: I am *afraid* of rollercoasters
Also Tom: successfully battles his phobia (watch Tom Scott Plus)
Also Also Tom: "I didnt know how to fit this into the video smoothly, I just wanted a go on the Alpine Coaster"
Learning quickly, I see
The Tom Scott Plus video is an excuse so that he can ride the Alpine Coaster
read the pinned comment
Continuity
As someone put it, Tom is a bit of a rogue character.
Also also also Tom: stands on top of the slope with sand board, still goes down with the cable car.
I love that you're very professional and serious and then you say "I'll be honest, I couldn't find a way to fit this in the video smoothly, I just wanted to go on the 'Alpine Coaster' !"
It's your informative videos and you get to decide how they should work
In Germany, many different things have been done to the remnants of mining. The most curious one has to be the Geiseltalsee winery, on the southward-facing slope of a spoil pile on the North side of a former lignite surface mine, now turned into a huge lake. The wine is surprisingly good.
That's only a few kilometers away from me (I live in Halle), but I've never been there... guess I'll need to check if there is a decent bicycle route to the Geiseltalsee. Not so much for the wine, I don't really like it, just to see the lake and the winery.
@@Hurricane2k8 du musst da hin
🍷
:D
sounded familiar and yep, drove with the bike around it.
For 1 second with the hop on the sandboard I was like 'oh wow Tom's become a badass since busting his coaster fear', no, no, he's still Tom, but that's why we love him.
Wanted to write exactly that. It would've been so unnatural for Tom to just jump don't that edge.
down*
Dude that slope is so steep
8
That ending clip of Tom going down the cable car is the purest thing I've ever seen
The cart ride of shame
And it is exactly what I expected Tom Scott to do.
@@JohnDoe-im6lg There is no shame in knowing your limits.
I have never snowboarded, but I would have given it a shot. I can ski though.
A Ralph moment
Dude! I grew up in the area and when our parents told us we'd go to Monte Kaolino on the weekend it was the most exciting thing! We still lived over an hour away but we didn't care. Sliding and rolling down this hill was worth it. A real childhood memory! Only annoying thing was that you found sand in every little corner of the car and piece of clothing afterwards haha
Internationale RUclipsr schauen
ASler - ASler everywhere :D
I rolled down this "mountain".
I drove past it when going to school for two years.
I feel cool now.
Thank you Tom!
fühl ich
"I can't sand board, I would die. Im gonna take a little cable cart down" 😂that made my day!
I think it's not even a joke. The angle of that hill is very steep, and being on a board you can gain speed very fast while being unable to stop it. It would be more of an accomplishment to not break your neck. Sitting down on the board without being strapped down onto it is probably safe though, and i guess that's the way 90% of the visitors go down on it. I did that in Australia a few times on some sand dunes. Still rough but you (probably) won't break your neck that way.
@@Engineer9736 yea I've never done sand boarding but I am a proud yearly Ski boarder (ski and snowboarder) but that doesn't look like the most beginner friendly slope...
same, i laughed. i'm thankful for those little moments of joy. =)
Me too! What a great finish!
5 years later and we now know why the world is running out of sand
Since when was it ever running out of sand? The Sahara desert is even expanding
@@Querez8504 we are running out of sand that we use in concrete
@@Querez8504 Not that kind of sand, sand required for construction is literally running out.
@@Querez8504 desert sand cant be used for industry (cement for example), you can only use sand thats been eroded by water not by wind and after a few hundred years of the world industrializing theres not a lot of that remaining
@@Querez8504 Sand shortage is referring to a special type of sand that is usually found in rivers and in the sea (it is mainly needed in construction material such as concrete and chip manufacturing for example processors need them), it has a different form than regular desert sand, Zalinki probably just made a quick joke, hope this answers your question
Tom, I grew up in Wales. In the 60's we still had working coal mines, and coal tips were everywhere. As a child I and some friends used to use corrugated iron sheets to surf down the tips. It was great fun to do although of course very dangerous. I wish I had a video camera back then, because I do not think there is any photographic record of our pastime.
This makes me think of one of the issues we have here in Oklahoma. In the city of Pitcher they piled up mining waste that actually was toxic and when it rained it would get into the water supply. If I remember right, the city was evacuated and abandoned in 2008 due to this issue as well as a tornado that ripped through the city. The city is considered one of the most toxic places in the United States and it’s definitely an interesting sight. You can travel out there and have a look, there’s just no water (due to its toxicity) or power.
also you can't climb the chat piles. if you do you'll likely cause a sinkhole effect which pulls you in and suffocates you
now that's an interesting wikipedia article
damn, it's a shame how companies can pollute the environment in the USA without being held responsible. i saw that interesting documentation about abandoned oil wells that are just left there dripping oil into the environment, because the companies can get away with it and dollars are more important then peoples lives. =(
@@moos5221 Most of those are from the 50's or earlier.
@@themonkeyspaw7359 no, the oil well problem is ongoing and much more recent the the 50s. if you were talking about the lead piles, i don't know anything about them other then what i read here. damn shame too though, shouldn't happen in a developed country.
My grandparents live around that area and I've been to the hill a couple of times now. It's such a weird feeling seeing people in shorts or swimming trunks carry skis and sandboards around, something usually carried by people in warm winter coats.
I wonder how does work, is it slow to use snowboard or ski on the sandhill?
@@TheMajkla You don’t use a normal snowboard because the sand would literally eat through it but a board that has an extra layer added to resist the sand
@@TheMajkla I've personally never gone down on skis or a snowboard but from what you see it's the same speed as on snow. The hill obviously not as big as a ski slope so you can't go too fast.
@@cozybtw I've used only cross country ski and when the snow is frozen and powdery you can go very fast. Maybe it's working because the sandhill is steep and sand loose.
@@TheMajkla Yes the sand is pretty loose. Your feet dig in to about your ankles when you go walk up it and I figure thats the same on the side where you go to ski as well.
It really made my day seeing Tom talk about Monte Kaolino, since I grew up about 10 Kilometers away from it. Keep up the good work and greetings from bavaria.
hätte nicht gedacht, dass noch jemand aus der Gegend hier ist. Komm aus Amberg :)
bei mir waren es 20 km:-)
Leuchtenberg
Grüße aus Nürnberg! Der Tom macht mir angst, der kommt immer näher!
"Stefan Wendl" yep that adds up for sure
this brought back memories. i've spent 4 or maybe 5 summer holidays there, on the camping ground, and it was always a blast. running down the hill was so much fun, although i'm not sure how i did that without breaking my neck :D
Practicing to chase the wheel of cheese?
Feels good to know, that local attractions get some recognition. Growing up in this area meant going there more than a couple of times in my childhood. Interesting video!
Tom Scott could just vlog himself travelling around the world, and I can spend all Summer long binge watching
You, good sir, have just described my experience from April 2020 to August 2020.
i'd prefer to spend all winter long watching, but i agree 100%.
B-brother?
Cork City, where Tom did the legally wobbling bridge video, has a relatively new park built on top of an old landfill site. The park itself isn't anything special but there are outlets that release any build up of methane from the decomposing waste below, which is strangely unnerving but great to see sites like that get turned into outdoor amenities
are the gases… lit? missed gaslighting (and GHG reduction) opportunity if it’s not.
I know that two parks and one estate have been built on landfills around Liverpool, cool to see the reuse of land that'd otherwise go to waste
@@a2e5 There used to be a methane release in a park of the same situation near me, that often was lit. I assume they had a spark maker somewhere in it. I think now they've decided unattended open flame in the suburbs probably isn't a good idea.
@@ryanpenrod1859 Is it just an unattended methane leak now? Seems they're trading one problem for another if they aren't doing anything with the releasing gas.
there is also a mountain in munich mear the football stadium which is similar and also has these outlets
I think this is really cool. As long as it's safe, I think building a leisure activity out of the waste product is a great way to make an otherwise unusable product into something good. I suppose the downside is that it would incentivise waste, and when the project is finished they're producing waste for nothing again, but potentially more of it because it had a purpose.
hm, actually the world is running out of sand (very slowly) and it is needed to create concrete, so whenever this themepark closes the material will likely be sought after.
@@moos5221 no that sand wont work it has to be special sand for some reason
@@aduckwithgrapes9572 no, that sand should be suitable to mix concrete. you can't use beach or desert sand, because it has too small grain size, but you can use all the inland sand in Germany that has usually been created during the last ice age when ice masses grounded the rocks into gravel and sand.
If you're using it, then by definition it isn't waste
@@moos5221 ohh ok then makes sence. Should have done more resarch then, my bad!
I'll be honest, seeing Tom on the snowboard gave me quite a startle and him trying to get out of it somehow set my world to rights again
The great thing about going to a theme park as a German is not only do they find the rides thrilling but the hours of orderly queuing to get on the ride are equally as exciting.
Why's that?
@@katethegoat7507 It's a joke about German culture.
@@katethegoat7507
I cant talk for every themepark, but the ones I visited in germany include attractions into the waiting queue
@@Colopty must be a German joke then cause it's weird
@@katethegoat7507 *anglo
The moment I saw Tom on the sandboard I was worried for his health
Oh my god, but you looked so cool for a nice moment on your sand board! Thank you for sharing!
More Tom on rollercoasters is just what I needed
Reminds me of all the chat piles around where I live. Real smart being 10 and climbing on lead mining waste heaps
You live in missouri?
@@frankstallone5595 Nah, Oklahoma. I travel between two places, one of them being in the northeast corner
@@Skip.8221 okay. I live in eastern Missouri and we have/had chat piles from our lead mines
@@frankstallone5595 I’m probably 10-15 minutes away from Picher which has the most chat piles in a single town (I think, at least). It’s super eerie since it’s been abandoned
Chat piles? Is that were Twitter and Facebook dispose of deleted posts? :D
Me: "Whoa, look at Tom go. He recently got over his fear of rollercoasters and is now going to sandboard without protection? Man, he really is becoming an adrenali-... ...ohhh."
ok
Just wait for the "I've learned how to snowboard on the last glacier in Iceland" type of video.
I live nearby that town. Went on there a couple times. The surrounding terrain in this town is also impressive. All that dug out sand.
Thanks Reimu.
I built parts of the high ropes course, the area is truly magnificent. Nice video as always thank you so much Tom
Finally a Tom Scott video about an attraction I've been at, I used to love going there as a kid it was always the highlight of my summer
Interesting. I was disappointed to not see any actual skiing in the video (no hate on Tom obviously) so how well does it work? Is the equipment just regular alpine gear? Seems to me it wouldn’t be nearly as good to go down as a snow covered hill.
Love your work, Tom! I work as a firefighter, and these videos help brighten my day!
3:11 Next Tom Scott Plus video, "I almost died boarding down a pile of sand!"
Lovely as usual. Your short videos are simply PERFECT: perfect format, length, amount of information and amount of humour. Keep doing it! ♥
There's another similar "mountain" in central Poland - Góra Kamieńsk. It's a byproduct of a major coal mine nearby. You can also go skiing there, but it works with regular snow, not sand. Still counts as "skiing on a pile of mining waste", though xD
And there I was hoping for a masterclass in sandskiing from Mr Scott
Thanks Tom
Im proud of my country being featured in so many Tom Scott videos!
There are so many interesting things you never heard of even in your own country, thanks Tom for showing us the wonderful details of the world
I love how honest you tackle your recent projects in particular.
I had a moment of confusion because I misheard kaolin as tailing and of course tailings are just mine waste including some really toxic stuff (lots of cyanide etc. in gold mine tailing). A mine where they only mined tailings would be a truly bad undertaking.
Not really since historic mining was very ineffcient, sometimes it is economic to 'mine' the tailings to re-process and gain back lost material.
In Georgia (US) they sell Georgia White Dirt, little lumps of clay from kaolin mines. People chew it and swallow it as it dissolves.
Having tackled his fear of rollercoasters, Tom now finds any excuse to get on one.
Next, overcoming his fear of dying on a snowboard.
Looks like Tom is on an European tour.
A few video in france then now a few more in Germany.
I only watched your getting over roller-coaster phobias video yesterday, and in this one your riding that rickety thing.
I'm glad the love of roller-coasters your found at the end of that video stuck with you.
I have been there multiple times and it’s so nice seeing Tom marking a video about it.
Tom, you are a superb presenter for all of these fantastic things found around us! Thank you.
Really fun to see Tom getting to enjoy rollercoasters :)
Yet another amazing video Tom!
I really like this guy and have done for years.
Thank you.
Oh i remember this mountain, when i was 16, we took a school trip there.
It was about a 30 minute drive by bus, after getting off everyone immediately raced to see who could climb it the fastest. Afterwards we went swimming in the nearby swimming pool. Those were the days.
We have similar from clay mining in Cornwall. The clay tips are mostly nice walking trails and wildlife areas now. Not as thrilling but still very nice haha
Thanks Tom.
One more place added to my bucket list.
Great to see tom enjoying all the rollercoasters now :)
Tom, you should visit 'Snowworld Landgraaf' in the Netherlands. Its literally an (indoor) ski slope on coalmining waste. It has the longest stairs of the Netherlands on it as well, on which the 'stairs marathon' is ran yearly (about 40 times up and down 508 stairs).
dordrecht has one to build on teflon waste
When Tom eventually becomes super rich I expect him to put a replica in his own theme park.
And most importantly build a big fountain
@@kaik625 the gravity fountain shall be the centerpiece.
have been up there several times, love the recommendation
After seeing the Tom Scott Plus video, when I saw you on the coaster just because you wanted to ride it, that made me smile.
Nice to see Tom is making the most of his new found appreciation of Rollercoasters
I love how just 2 days ago you posted a video about how you're getting over your fear of rollercoasters on TS+ and now you're already putting rollercoaster bits in your videos. Amazing to see the evolution!
Love the ending and placement of the ride, perfectly well put! You're a genius!
It's actually so exciting seeing you go from being afraid to coasters; to being so excited to see one that you had to try it out.
We also have huge salt pile in Germany, called Monte Kali. It's also a mining byproduct, but in that case from potassium mining.
der gute berg am röhrigshof xD
Guide: There is also a roller coaster
Tom: Did you say roller coaster?
Tom: Wheeeeeeeeee!!!!
Brilliant as always
tom going on the alpine coaster made me smile and gave me energy for the rest of the evening
I have been there. It is way steeper than it looks in the video, and it is really fun to "run" down from there due to the sand, but it is quite exhausting going up there
You should look at the coalmine hills in my home town of Herzogenrath in Germany, there are around 5 100 meter tall coal hills one of them is even burning on the inside due to the high preshure inside.
Would love to see an episode about those.
Hi Luca, nice to see you here. I live there as well. These spoil heaps from former hard coal and brown coal mines we got are just made up of rocks, sand and some coal, while this one is made up entirely of sand. The Sophienhöhe with its vegetation and walking paths is very interesting though.
props to the editor of this video
I love these mini docos about Germany, keep em coming.
At the very end I was so nervous you'll try to go with that board not fastened to your feet at all 😄 Learn snowboarding, it's a lot of fun
In Estonia, we also have something like it. it is called "Kiviõli Seikluskeskus" and it is on shale oil ash pile. it is not opened in summer but on winter it is skiing resort
What is shale oil?(yes I can ask goigle, but is not fun as asking a real human :)!) Have you ever tried it?
I'm starting to think these are quite common, because there's also another one in Poland, called Góra Kamieńsk.
@@92Slartibartfast Oil shale is a rock made from organic matter compressing under high pressure, shale oil is oil that is made by extracting hydrocarbons from it
I wouldn't really try it as ingest it, but yes, when I was a kid, we used to have a boiler that burned oil shale.
@@mikk150 thank you! I meant, have you ever tried to ski on it? How is it the experience?
@@92Slartibartfast I do not like wintersports - so no. But I presume it is totally fine, as there's snow on top of it ofc if it is skiing resort
This place looks awesome, thanks for showing it to us Tom!
This made me smile.
Tom at it again. Showing me amazing places I've never heard of in my own home country. Hope you have (had?) a great time visiting Germany.
Tom just won’t pass up the opportunity of a rollercoaster anymore. He’s making up for lost time 😂
The latest series of videos from Germany always made me smile. Partly because I like seeing things from my country featured on here, and partly because they are just so... funny.
That scenic shot of the slow descent down the mountain really made me chuckle, especially after the frantic attempt to release yourself from the board, great vid Tom! I know where my next travel destination is now!
Yes, yes I do
2 tickets to waste mountain please!
3:16 so this is not the hill you're willing to die on? :P
i love that tom translates it "as said", which keeps the local character and specifics!
Absolutely loved the ending.
There's a mining environmental aftermath called The Scar in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Forests for hundreds of mines and a baren scar of rock and a massive hole in the side of the mountain that can be seen from 20km away
It has more or less also served as a tourist attractions.
in a good way?
The progression from Tom getting over his fear of roller coasters to him going on one just for fun in the next video. What a character arc.
That's amazing. I also just loved the ending
I've wanted to visit many of the places you have visited over the years but damn, I feel like this one was actually made for me!
Sand-boarding must be incredibly different from snowboarding - the weight and hardness of sand would mean you have to slice it very differently from snow... I imagine a lot of snow boarders hurt themselves there? It would have been fun to hear a review of the boarding experience
nothing to do with being cool ,it s a way to escape responsebillity for big companies
Hey Tom, maybe you're already aware of it but there is a very similar thing in "Noeux-les-Mines" in Northern France, except over there they use artificial snow so it stays open all year long and while you go shopping for groceries in the middle of summer you can literally see people skiing from the parking lot of the supermarket, it's really peculiar, would make for an interesting video (maybe less so now that you've made this one ahah) !
That's pretty bad though. Artifical snow has a huge enviromental footprint. So not that comparable
Tom, I am happy that you were able to experience the Alpine Coaster!!!
And it's really okay not to feel the pressure to have to do or be good at everything. Good on you Tom. 🤗
By the way: There are about a dozen of these mountains across Germany, mostly in Hessen and Thüringen
I've kind of wondered what sandboarding is like. I've done it on snow a fair few times, but sand seems like it would be a bit different, probably a lot firmer and a lot more painful if you fall over! Also I'm pretty sure it would destroy my nicely waxed and polished finish on my snowboard in about an hour.
I was curiouse too but couldn't find anything about super high risks of injury and most pictures i saw had people wear normal clothing. so there doesn't seem to be any elevated risk to it, at least not more then normal snowboarding
Been there myself and it's not that painful. The problem is the sand ends up in all the wrong places.
Proud to see this after the coaster video. Cheers Tom!
And again some cool stuff from germany I never heard about. This time it's even closer to me! just one hour drive. Thanks Tom for brining this to our attention!
If Tom had skiied down that slope, I was ready to Unsubscribe in an instant, because then I'd be 100% sure that the miniature Tom Scott robot from the previous episode now had a fully functioning body and had replaced the real Tom Scott in theses videos.
I learn so much new about my homeland😂 DANKE!
This place is on my list of obscure places to travel to and now Tom Scott has been there, what a legend
And now thanks to you I know about this place. Thanks Tom for your wild, random video adventures.