The Cordillera Darwin is an extensive mountain range

Mountain range

A mountain range is a single, large mass consisting of a succession of mountains or narrowly spaced mountain ridges, with or without peaks, closely related in position, direction, formation, and age; a component part of a mountain system or of a mountain chain...

 mantled by an ice field

Ice field

An ice field is an area less than 50,000 km² of ice often found in the colder climates and higher altitudes of the world where there is sufficient precipitation. It is an extensive area of interconnected valley glaciers from which the higher peaks rise as nunataks...

. It is located in the southwestern portion of Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego

Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego

Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego is an island near the southern tip of South America from which it is separated by the Strait of Magellan...

, entirely within the Chile

Chile

Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

an territory. It is part of the longest Andes

Andes

The Andes is the world's longest continental mountain range. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America. This range is about long, about to wide , and of an average height of about .Along its length, the Andes is split into several ranges, which are separated...

 range and includes the highest mountains in Tierra del Fuego

Tierra del Fuego

Tierra del Fuego is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan. The archipelago consists of a main island Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego divided between Chile and Argentina with an area of , and a group of smaller islands including Cape...

, with elevations reaching over 2000 m (6,561.7 ft); The ice field of the Cordillera Darwin covers an area greater than 2300 square kilometres (888 sq mi). The Darwin Range extends in a west-east direction from the Monte Sarmiento

Monte Sarmiento

Monte Sarmiento is a pyramidal peak with a glaciated saddle-shaped summit located within Alberto de Agostini National Park, in the Chilean portion of Tierra del Fuego. It rises abruptly from the east shore of the Magdalena Channel and marks the western border of the Cordillera Darwin...

 (located in the vicinity of Magdalena Channel

Magdalena Channel

Magdalena Channel is a Chilean channel joining the Strait of Magellan with Cockburn Channel and is part of a major navigation route which ultimately connects with the Beagle Channel. It separates Capitán Aracena Island from the westernmost portion of Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, and crosses...

) to Yendegaia Valley. It is bounded by the Almirantazgo Fjord

Almirantazgo Fjord

Almirantazgo Fjord, also known as Almirantazgo Sound , is a Chilean fjord cutting deeply into the Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego. The fjord is a southeastern projection of Canal Whiteside, which separates the just mentioned island from Dawson Island...

 on the north and the Beagle Channel

Beagle Channel

thumb|right|300px|Aereal view of Beagle Channel. The Chilean [[Navarino Island]] is seen in the top-right while the Argentine part of [[Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego]] is seen at the bottom-left....

 on the south. The range is named after Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin

Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...

 and is the most important feature of Alberto de Agostini National Park

Alberto de Agostini National Park

Alberto de Agostini National Park is a park located in the Chilean part of Tierra del Fuego. It covers and includes the Cordillera Darwin mountain range. The park is named after Alberto Maria De Agostini, who was an Italian missionary and explorer. Several tidewater glaciers and steep fjords form...

, which includes a number of well known glaciers including the Marinelli Glacier

Marinelli Glacier

Marinelli Glacier is a tidewater glacier located in Alberto de Agostini National Park, Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego. The glacier spills out from the backbone of the Cordillera Darwin and calves into Ainsworth Bay, an embayment of the Almirantazgo Fjord...

, which is now under prolonged retreat as of 2008.

In October 2011, a team of French mountaineers from the French Army's Groupe Militaire de Haute Montagne announced the first crossing of the Cordillera Darwin in a 29-day trip which included an ascent of Mount Darwin, the highest peak in the range.

Major peaks

• Monte Darwin
  Mount Darwin (Andes)
  Mount Darwin, the highest peak in Tierra del Fuego at forms part of the Cordillera of the Andes, South America, just to the north of the Beagle Channel. It is formed of crystalline schists and has massive glaciers down its steep southern slopes....
  
  
• Monte Sarmiento
  Monte Sarmiento
  Monte Sarmiento is a pyramidal peak with a glaciated saddle-shaped summit located within Alberto de Agostini National Park, in the Chilean portion of Tierra del Fuego. It rises abruptly from the east shore of the Magdalena Channel and marks the western border of the Cordillera Darwin...
  
  
• Monte Italia
• Monte Bove
• Monte Roncagli
• Monte Luis de Saboya
• Monte Della Vedova
• Monte Buckland