About the Atacama Crossing 2015 (4-10 October) - www.atacamacrossing.com

The Atacama Crossing is one of the four races that comprise the world renowned 4 Deserts Series of 250-kilometer endurance footraces. The race takes place in Chile’s stunning but brutal Atacama Desert, which is the largest cold coastal desert and the driest place on Earth. The Atacama is a rainless plateau hemmed in between the Pacific Ocean and the Andes and is a unique landscape of salt lakes, volcanoes, lava flows and sand dunes that challenge even the best runners. Atacama Crossing is grueling not only because of the forbidding terrain, which is rarely flat underfoot, and harsh climate, but also because of the altitude that averages 2,500 meters / 8,000 feet during the race.