THE URBAN EXPLORER
PLANETCLIMBER
"Mongolia is kind of close, right?" Story about an attempt to ski everywhere in the world where there's snow. And in some places where there isn't. On and off-piste skiing on all continents, skiing into craters of live volcanoes, caving, climbing, photography, and travel.
Wiesliczka is a suburb of Krakow. Under it is a massive salt mine, extending to a depth of approximately over 300 meters, with the total length of labyrinth passages spanning over 287 kilometers. The use of the site dates back to the 13th century, where the locals would harvest salt from brine (salt concentrate) wells dug on the wetlands, as in photo below. Later in the same century the wells started to be extended as deeper mine shafts and tunnels. Wiesliczka is not just a mine, it is a massive underground
Salt has by now meticulously been carved out for over seven centuries, albeit the mining operations have ceased since 2007. Salt was turned into blocks like the one below, one such block being so valuable that one could buy the houses of an entire village with it:
THE URBAN EXPLORER
PLANETCLIMBER