View Full Version : The North Face's Doug Tompkins dies
rocketsocks
12-09-2015, 16:12
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/12/09/business/douglas-tompkins-72-north-face-founder-dies-in-kayaking-accident.html?referer=https://www.google.com/
chknfngrs
12-09-2015, 16:50
I really enjoyed his part in 180 South. I also admired he and his circle of dudes for sticking together over the years.
Tragic accident that appears to have been during something he truly loved.
ever notice how the friends, family and acquaintances that think your personal hiking fetish is a bizarre and unsafe aberration are quick to send articles like this to you -- just so you know? death, snakes, rapists, lyme disease, hypothermia and bears, oh my. On a more serious note -- I applaud his continued commitment to the wild.
saltysack
12-09-2015, 18:18
Sad day....Doug and Yvon Chouinard....modern day John Muir....they have done great work toward preserving our wild places...
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I really enjoyed his part in 180 South. I also admired he and his circle of dudes for sticking together over the years.
Tragic accident that appears to have been during something he truly loved.
I love to see they name one of the peaks or areas in Patagonia "Tompkins" in his honor.
rocketsocks
12-09-2015, 18:37
ever notice how the friends, family and acquaintances that think your personal hiking fetish is a bizarre and unsafe aberration are quick to send articles like this to you -- just so you know? death, snakes, rapists, lyme disease, hypothermia and bears, oh my. On a more serious note -- I applaud his continued commitment to the wild.
Yes I indeedy they do do that, as if to say "see, I told ya so" but what they really mean is "this is why you'll never see me out there...see I told yo so"
rocketsocks
12-09-2015, 18:38
Was Doug Tompkins in the documentary "verticals limits" about Yosemite climbers? Looks familiar to me.
rocketsocks
12-09-2015, 18:41
Was Doug Tompkins in the documentary "verticals limits" about Yosemite climbers? Looks familiar to me.
OK, thanks for letting me know just looked it up...not verticals limits, what's it called..little hep?
ever notice how the friends, family and acquaintances that think your personal hiking fetish is a bizarre and unsafe aberration are quick to send articles like this to you -- just so you know? death, snakes, rapists, lyme disease, hypothermia and bears, oh my. On a more serious note -- I applaud his continued commitment to the wild.
Yeah im sure this will be landing in my inbox shortly. These stories always do. While accidental death is always unfortunate and sad at any age, at least he lived a long life and was pursuing his passion for the outdoors until the end. RIP...
Sarcasm the elf
12-09-2015, 19:12
Yeah, I read news of it this morning, very sad. I hope that his trust carries on his good work.
donthaveoneyet
12-09-2015, 19:46
Donated 715,000 acres to create Pumalin Park. And people make fun of his brand.
RIP, Mr. Tompkins. Condolences to his friends and families... and in fact, to all of us.
Sarcasm the elf
12-09-2015, 19:55
Donated 715,000 acres to create Pumalin Park. And people make fun of his brand.
RIP, Mr. Tompkins. Condolences to his friends and families... and in fact, to all of us.
TNF was sold to Vanity Fair in the early 2000's, I believe Mr. Tompkins sold his share in the late 1980's so that he could use the assets for his conservation efforts.
Just Bill
12-09-2015, 20:04
OK, thanks for letting me know just looked it up...not verticals limits, what's it called..little hep?
Mountain of Storms is the film you are thinking of. (Probably- he made other films)
180* South- (an excellent film still on Netflix) is a recreation of this film/journey.
Doug and Yvon appear in the film as they were the main inspiration for it.
https://vimeo.com/53643556
Just Bill
12-09-2015, 20:38
"Since leaving the business world in 1989, Tompkins was active in various environmental activism and land conservation causes. Along with his wife, Kris Tompkins (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kris_Tompkins), he bought and conserved over 2 million acres (8,100 km2) of wilderness (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilderness) in Chile (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chile) and Argentina (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentina), more than any other private individual in the region, thus becoming one of the the largest private land-owners in the world.[2] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Tompkins#cite_note-2) Together, they were focused on park creation, wildlife recovery, ecological agriculture, and activism, with the goal of saving biodiversity."
At one point (and perhaps still) he was the single largest private conservator of land in the world... perhaps because he acted as his own personal Nature Conservancy and bought land personally until it could be converted into a permanent preserve he "lost" that designation as in the last decade or so he has been successful in converting many of his private tracks.
The North Face (sold long ago) and Esprit (sold long ago) were his two biggest personal companies... netting him over 1 billion dollars before billionaire's were common.
That pack of buddies he hung out with included Yvon Chouinard (Patagonia), Tom Frost, and many other pioneering climbers and more importantly; businessmen.
The North Face, Patagonia, Black Diamond, Frostworks and I'm sure dozens of others directly spun from that group of buddies. To a large extent almost all modern gear in outdoor sports stems from this group. As does the legacy of insane customer service, warrantee, and corporate responsibility found in gear companies today due mainly to these fellas.
Sad for those who knew him personally, sad perhaps for the unfinished work he would likely still be doing.
But what an incredible person and gift to all of us- nothing to be sad about really. 72 year old badass takes his last trip...
Many folks worthy of admiration and this fella is right up there with any you could name. Imagine if after seeing Yosemite for the first time, Muir had applied himself, earned a small fortune and simply bought Hetch Hetchy, or even all of Yosemite until Teddy could save it all... In essence that is what Doug Tompkins did.
Or call him Percival Baxter if you'd like an AT reference; although the scale at which Doug operated was a bit beyond Baxter.
Lots of us debate chucking it all and leaving society behind... here's a fella who chucked society on it's head in order to leave massive works of land and conservation behind.
The legacy is still here, so are his foundations, some of his buddies, and most important of all- his land.
There won't be a mountain named after him- seems like the kinda guy who'd not only laugh, but be saddened by that idea...
Wisely, he bought or helped preserve many of them before he died and they can't be renamed.
Sneaky bastard.
saltysack
12-09-2015, 20:39
OK, thanks for letting me know just looked it up...not verticals limits, what's it called..little hep?
Valley uprising I believe...
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donthaveoneyet
12-09-2015, 21:56
72 year old badass takes his last trip...
Ha! Nicely put. May we all aspire to such an epitaph.
Just Bill
12-09-2015, 22:42
"I feel totally at home in this part of the world. This is where I am going to croak. I feel a strong bond with Chile and Argentina. ...
"I have even begun to think that I am caring for Argentina and Chile perhaps more than Argentines and Chileans. I feel like I'm sort of a de facto citizen, because I am looking after their national patrimony — which is the land — very carefully. You come to realize the passport is meaningless. It is really your behavior that determines whether you're a patriot. If you're trashing your own country, ruining the soils, contaminating the waters and the air, cutting down trees, overfishing the lakes, rivers, and oceans, you're not much of a patriot."
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/12/09/459046112/north-face-founder-douglas-tompkins-dies-in-kayaking-accident-in-chile
And one for Dogwood-
But he would later shun the business world and devote himself full-time to conservation, according to the website of the group he founded, the Foundation for Deep Ecology (http://www.deepecology.org/history.htm):
"By the late 1980s Tompkins saw how the consumer culture that he'd helped promote as a businessman was another destructive manifestation of an industrial growth economy toxic to nature. He decided to sell his stake in the fashion company Esprit that he'd co-founded, and to use his wealth to endow an environmental foundation with an activist orientation."
rocketsocks
12-10-2015, 03:15
Mountain of Storms is the film you are thinking of. (Probably- he made other films)
180* South- (an excellent film still on Netflix) is a recreation of this film/journey.
Doug and Yvon appear in the film as they were the main inspiration for it.
https://vimeo.com/53643556
Valley uprising I believe...
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thanked both, I'll check em out again...I remember it being a very good documentary with lots of historic footage all around the valley, camp 4, elcap, half dome and a who's who cast of climbing pioneers, including John Muir.
Just Bill
12-10-2015, 11:27
Looks like valley uprising is the one yer thinking of...
Watched Valley of Storms last night (on you tube fer free if you'd like) and it's 1968 and Yvon is the only one who gets much facetime so like as not, not the film you recollect.
Valley Uprising looks excellent, though I haven't seen it. Fellas on the cover are Westbay, Bridwell, and Long.
Guessing Doug might be in that film somewhere, but he doesn't stick out as a big valley climber.
Looks like a good film for all the "Hiker Trash" crowd to watch, lol.
Climbers, surfers, and river rats had that title locked up 40 years ago and hiker trash is pretty tame in comparison really.