Alain Mesili

Born a Parisian in 1949, Alain Mesili was a political activist in France during the 1968 disturbances. Frustrated with the failings of the French Communist Party he left Europe in 1969 and went, together with a number of other leaders of the failed uprising, to Argentina. "We left to live other lives. At the time, when I started to discover Argentina and Patagonia, virtually no one went there."

Mesili spent a year exploring Patagonia. He crossed the icecap and was probably the first person to trek around what has now become the Fitz Roy National Park. He also explored the Cordillera Darwin, crossing Chile at a time when Pinochet's Austral Highway did not exist.

External links

* [http://www.andes-mesili.com/fr/text_ingles.htm Alain Mesili, a living leyend] (sic)