Description

Unlike most mountain ranges, the eastern edge of the Patagonian Andes rises straight from the plains with almost no preliminaries or foothills. Behind the initial wall of peaks lies a huge icecap, the world’s largest so far from the poles. At these latitudes, known to seamen as the ‘furious fifties’, winds race around the globe almost entirely over the oceans, the only barrier to their progress being Patagonia. This results in some of the cleanest air on air, but also some of the wettest.