Snowcairn Mountains

The Snowcairn Mountains are a very high mountain range running generally north-to-south for roughly seven hundred miles on the far western edge of Shiankar, separating the Kesh Karkhan from the narrow coastal strip of the Medrenesse along the Sea of Wyrms. 
The Snowcairns rival the Adhemars of Rhydain in their sheer physical impenetrability: They are extremely high and steep, permanently snow-covered, and almost the entire length of the range’s main crest is unbroken by any usable gaps or passes. This has the effect of almost completely walling off the Medrenesse from the lands of Shiankar just over the range to the east. 
The Snowcairns also create a sharp climatic transition. On the western side of the range, oceanic winds blowing off the Sea of Wyrms bring ample rain, so the Medrenesse and the west-facing slopes running to it are covered in lush evergreen forests. But on the east-facing side of the Snowcairns, the landscape immediately becomes dry and barren, with the naked flinty crags and wind-raked badlands of Tokarea stretching off to the desolate horizon.