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Patagonian Expedition Race, ChileWhen: February 14 to 22“The last wild race” may seem a bold claim, but if any event can live up to it, it’s the Patagonian Expedition Race (see it featured in our Ultimate Adventure Bucket List). Deemed by many as the pinnacle of adventure racing, this ten-day endurance competition attracts as many as 20 coed four-person teams from more than a dozen countries. Most years, fewer than half finish, but in many ways, winning is irrelevant. In fact, there’s no prize money—only bragging rights.Racers sea kayak, mountain bike, trek, and orienteer with only maps and compasses through some of the wildest reaches of Chilean Patagonia (see our Chile guide). They travel for days without seeing other teams through spectacularly diverse landscapes, from the tempestuous waters off Cape Horn to peat bogs, ancient petrified-wood forests, and the 11,000-foot peaks of the Cordillera Darwin.Though the clock is always ticking and teams endure extreme cold and sleep deprivation, participants emerge from the wilderness with tales of life-changing experiences, such as the sight of a gargantuan humpback whale breaching right next to a kayak or the Zen-like feeling of watching dawn light the eastern horizon, casting an otherworldly glow over a landscape few people have seen.Get Planning: Race fees are about $1,200-$1,600 per team; www.patagonianexpeditionrace.com Hike this stunning region on a 14-day adventure with National Geographic.

Photograph by Tony Hoare, Patagonian Expedition Race

Ten Great Races in Amazing Places

Bust your lungs running a marathon (or two) in the Swiss Alps, ski with the whole family in Wisconsin's Birkebeiner, test your steely resolve in Quebec's new Mont Tremblant Ironman, and seven more amazing excuses to get in shape and plan a world-class vacation in 2012.

ByKate Siber