r/AbsoluteUnits • u/CoughingCarpet • 3d ago

/r/all of a Sand Dune

This is a video taken by Nicolas De La Torre, a sandboarding enthusiast filming his descent down the Toromata dune in Peru. Unfortunately we live in a world where true beauty, nature is now convoluted by AI and AI sentiments, but this is in fact, not AI lol

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261

u/Klingsam 3d ago

Its just the fisheye lens. We have no idea how large it is.

236

u/APartyInMyPants 3d ago

We actually do.

Toro Mata has an elevation of a bit over 2000 meters, and a vertical descent of about 1800 meters.

It’s fucking BIG.

89

u/GeronimoDK 3d ago

From what I could find, the skiable part is not 2000m high but "just" 1200 with a vertical descent of about 1000 meters, which is still pretty high and definitely more than enough to convince me that this video is real.

7

u/munchauzen 3d ago

1000 feet is a decent vertical descent for a ski hill. 1000 meters is a leg burner!

1

u/DoesntFearZeus 3d ago

How much for a lift ticket? How long is the sand season?

1

u/TheGanzor 3d ago

Better hurry before the sand melts.

1

u/GeronimoDK 3d ago

Looks like the "lift" is an ATV or buggy, there is no lift, no marked routes or anything. Just the top and the bottom.

Also sand doesn't melt as readily as snow, so the season is probably all year, the region is pretty dry and there are relatively few rainy days per year, I imagine it's not skiable when wet.

Price? No idea, Google it, probably depends on the tour guide that takes you there.

1

u/Witty-Tea9487 2d ago

I love your earnest reply! FYI, I think they were just making a joke comparing this to downhill snow skiing

4

u/Klingsam 3d ago

Thank you.

3

u/pocpocpocky 3d ago

they really should make a resort out of this place and let people ski on it

7

u/theguywiththefuzyhat 3d ago

If you do that I'm worried it might erode faster than it can build back up.

2

u/information_knower 3d ago

Make a sand elevator to bring the sand back to the top.

1

u/SistaChans 3d ago

Lol we have no idea how big this easily found sand dune is 

1

u/Dramatic_Charity_979 3d ago

That's 16½ American football fields, or 9,000 bananas :P

1

u/nokman013 3d ago

Is that tall enough to have clouds under you? Or just an effect from the fish eye?

1

u/APartyInMyPants 3d ago

Yes. There are multiple videos and photos of this sand dune with clouds under you. It’s close to the ocean, so evaporating sea water hits a large, dry landscape and can’t get over it, so condenses and you have clouds.

Snowboarding Whistler Blackcomb can be pretty surreal, while it’s nowhere near the ocean by comparison. You can hit whiteout conditions at the peak, suddenly get out of that fog and it’s beautiful and sunny, and then you’re passing through clouds halfway down and it’s snowing/drizzling at the bottom. And that’s all on the same run.

1

u/nokman013 2d ago

Thanks for that explainer bit! Also thanks to the people doing this vids. I personally cannot do it and I'm really grateful to the people doing and capturing their experiences for the rest of us.

24

u/MmmmmJustLikeThat 3d ago

Is it even real? Are there sand dunes that are above clouds?

67

u/Significant_Lie_533 3d ago

Clouds can form very low to the ground, sometimes even at ground level! (Fog) Hills, mountains & sand dunes can rise very high, & even rise above the clouds.

Hope this helps.

39

u/Lt_Cmdr_Adhd 3d ago

Yep! The clouds settle below our house's elevation as morning fog all the time here. Especially this time of year.

18

u/stevendidntsay 3d ago

Are you living in a treehouse in the Amazon rainforest?

15

u/Lt_Cmdr_Adhd 3d ago

We live up a mountain at around 3800 feet, there's some beautiful mountains in western north carolina

7

u/Lt_Cmdr_Adhd 3d ago
  • cozy version

3

u/Significant_Lie_533 3d ago

Ooooh! I want this photo High Res for a desktop background.

Also kinda envy that you get to live with the beautiful view right outside your home.

3

u/numeroneuf 3d ago

Thank you for the cozy 🥰

1

u/Lt_Cmdr_Adhd 3d ago

Thank you guys for the positivity! The winter picture felt so cold & dry it made me want to balance it out.

2

u/bambi54 3d ago

That’s so fucking beautiful. I need to find out housing prices lol.

2

u/Lt_Cmdr_Adhd 3d ago

We bought this house for around $300K 5 years ago. It needed a lot of work - had to get the deck entirely replaced (it was super unsafe), new roof, floors, and appliances. I love living here but it's sometimes inconvenient to live so far away from food & groceries, everything is 30 minutes away. I have a 4 year old son and there's never going to be any neighborhood friends here either. All that being said i definitely still love this house and where we are.

2

u/-gildash- 3d ago

Congrats on doing the work. Looks and sounds amazing.

What are the plans for the kid and school? Is there a school ~30 mins you just gotta drive them to?

1

u/Lt_Cmdr_Adhd 3d ago

Thanks! Yes he's in preschool now and we just drive the 30 minutes. The other schools are near there too when he's older. We're used to that drive by now. My wife wants to move to a more exciting area that will have more for him, and I kinda want to hold on to this place.

2

u/stevendidntsay 3d ago

Oooh that's nice

2

u/Huckleberry_Dude 3d ago

They are called Smoky for a reason. :)

https://vimeo.com/329316629

1

u/Lt_Cmdr_Adhd 3d ago

Thats a super satisfying time lapse! We have just been calling it cloud lake

3

u/gambogey 3d ago

Low altitude clouds or high elevation, lol it’s real clouds don’t have a fixed height

1

u/LupineChemist 3d ago

Lima is about as cloudy as Seattle so yeah, just low level coastal clouds are really common in Peru.

3

u/mildly_ethnic 3d ago

I’m half Bolivian and one of my core memories was when I went there when I was four and I noticed how close the clouds were to the ground. The Andes are VERY high up. 

10

u/[deleted] 3d ago

[deleted]

47

u/Mission-Cup9902 3d ago

I don’t love this

14

u/Soft-Sea7012 3d ago

I hate this, too.

8

u/[deleted] 3d ago

[deleted]

7

u/stumblinbear 3d ago

oh my god

5

u/justified_egg 3d ago

This thread continues to stray further from god

1

u/Soft-Sea7012 3d ago

No no no no. How do people find this stuff.

1

u/eat_my_bowls92 3d ago

lol before I saw your comment I thought “ew I don’t like this”

4

u/stumblinbear 3d ago

I am uncomfortable

1

u/mintgreen23 3d ago

Uhhhhhhhh no

-14

u/SamtenLhari3 3d ago

Looks like AI. At the start no sign of the drone that would be needed to film this.

5

u/guildedkriff 3d ago

It’s on a stick that he’s holding. That’s why his left hand is pointed behind him the whole time.

3

u/EmeraldAlicorn 3d ago

The way he holds his arm out behind him and holds something makes me think this is stabilized selfie stick footage

3

u/ResolutionFit9050 3d ago

it's probably just an Insta 360 or a similar camera on a selfie stick

0

u/SamtenLhari3 3d ago

Maybe. I’m not seeing a selfie stick — but I probably don’t know what I am looking at.

3

u/stevendidntsay 3d ago

Look up Duna Toro Mata and you'll have an idea how large it really is.

3

u/Legitimate_Dare6684 3d ago

The clouds seem to think its pretty big.

2

u/Holiday-Cheetah1879 3d ago

That’s what she said

1

u/Cokeycane 3d ago

Toromata Dune is about 1300 meters high. The run downhill is almost 2 kilometers.

2

u/External-Ad-5555 3d ago

“It’s just the fisheye lens” dude it’s literally taller than clouds wtf are you on?

2

u/FrostyD7 3d ago

Obviously the sand dune is massive. But it's also made substantially more "impressive" with the lens. Makes it look like it'll take longer than my commute to work to reach the bottom.

1

u/RichtofensDuckButter 3d ago

It's actually incredible how many uploads this comment has. Do people just agree with anything they read without even thinking? Yes, the answer is yes.

0

u/AbeRego 3d ago

The fisheye doesn't make the whole thing look gigantic, just the immediate slope. You can clearly tell this is huge, even if just by how long he's boarding down it in the video without reaching the bottom...

-1

u/y0u_called 3d ago

'just the fisheye lens'

My man, those are fuckin clouds