38. Los Caracoles, Chile
Constructed: 2004 (Dam)
Risk Factor: Hairpin turns
Chile’s Paso de las Caracoles (Snail’s Pass, in English) is an extremely steep climb, filled with all sorts of hazards. Caracoles has twenty-nine turns, which you have to take “at a snail’s pace” if you want to survive them. Cars and trucks ascend to thousands of feet above sea level, reaching the border that crosses to Argentina at 10,500 feet
Los Caracoles, Chile @ijaremowych / Pinterest.com
The climb is especially dangerous in winter when snow and ice make Caracoles nearly impossible to drive. Don’t count out summer though. In the summer, heavily-laden trucks’ brakes and engines are punished by extreme, brutal heat. Better hope your air conditioning is in peak condition if you take Caracoles in the summer.