The Uyuni Salt Flats in Bolivia are a high-altitude desert (over two miles above sea level): They’re famed as the largest salt pans on the planet. Five-time X-Games gold medalist Daniel Dhers decided: What a perfect location for some ramps.
So John Saxton designed the ramps and local Bolivians from the town of Colchani helped construct them (“We built the ramps’ structure out of salt bricks, and had to create a secret mix to smooth them out,” Dhers says), at which point Dhers could launch into action.
Nicknamed “Dalí’s Desert” because of the view, Dhers discovered Uyuni are surreal in another way: Their extreme altitude causes disorienting blood oxygen shortages.
“I would make a line in the Salt Park and would stop for five minutes to catch my breath again,” says Dhers, noting temperature was also a problem because it was “really hot during the day and when the sun was covered by a cloud, I was freezing.”
To learn more about what Dhers called “the roughest project I’ve done in my life,” click here. Watch him take on the challenge below.
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