Some Stories: Lessons from the Edge of Business and Sport—Yvon Chouinard
Overdevelopment, Overpopulation, Overshoot—edited by Tom Butler
Resurgence of the Real—Charlene Spretnak
Abundant Earth—Eileen Crist
Acknowledgments
Doug Tompkins was a rare jewel, his facets brilliant and cut sharply. There is no way to capture all his wild and rich life. But during the four years that I wrote and researched, literally hundreds of people assisted. Kris Tompkins shared with me an honest portrait of her husband and conservation partner. To Yvon Chouinard, I would like to acknowledge that despite his insanely busy schedule, he never failed to answer my questions and read early drafts of this manuscript. To Doug’s daughter Quincey Tompkins and her husband Dan Imhoff, I offer gratitude for sharing a memorable afternoon in your beautiful home as we sought to untangle the web that was Doug. To Susie Tompkins Buell and Summer Tompkins, for honesty in describing the difficult sides of Doug. I appreciate your frank efforts to help me understand Doug.
Mike Faye, thanks for the amazing interviews and insider account of your adventures with Doug. Early versions of this book were read and improved thanks to input from Chris Jones, Rob Lesser, Nadine Lehner, Jib Ellison, Rick Ridgeway, Laura Fernández, Edgar Boyles, Linde Waidhofer, Weston Boyles, Lito Tejada-Flores, Dick Dorworth, Hernan Mladinic, Ignacio Jimenez, and many others.
My longtime agent in London, Annabel Murillo of Peters Fraser & Dunlap, was instrumental in helping me hone the original idea for this book. In New York City, George Lucas of Inkwell Management brought the proposal into reality through his tremendous job presenting my ideas to New York’s finest. Of all the editors who worked on this, Miles Doyle of HarperOne was a key early supporter as he shaped the first drafts. Sydney Rogers kindly pushed me when I kept asking for more time to rewrite and rewrite. HarperOne president Judith Curr has quietly shaped and helped my career as a writer far more than she realizes! Thanks Judith! Copy editor Mark Woodworth surprised the hell out of me. I expected a regular edit and felt like I’d won the lottery when I saw how much better he made the prose. Chris Waarlo and Jan Holst, the mapmakers at EMK in Holland, were consummate professionals as we jointly pieced together the varied maps.
My gratitude to Doug’s personal lawyer Pedro Pablo Gutierrez; he helped me decipher not only Doug but the Chile in which he landed in the early 1990s. Tom Butler was a key source of information and inspiration. Erin “Louie” Billman fought for this book at just the moment when it seemed the entire project was sinking; her tenacious belief in A Wild Idea was instrumental. I am also grateful that Sofia Heinonen, who worked so diligently with Doug for decades (from her base in Argentina), was able to make the time to receive me and guide me through his and Kris’s Argentine operations. Joyce Ybarra generously shared material for this book from her son Michael Ybarra’s interviews with Doug Tompkins. In southern Chile, Carolina Morgado, Pia Moya, and Weston Boyles were spectacular in their understanding of the region and Doug’s role in shaping its destiny. Carlos Cuevas and Dagoberto Gúzman were among Doug’s most valued colleagues. He spent years with each of them and deeply trusted their analysis of Chile as he navigated through battle after battle.
Far too many people in Chilean Patagonia and Iberá (Argentina) helped me to name them all. But from drinking mate in the rewilding shacks to a BBQ at Rodrigo Villablanca’s home inside Pumalín Park, I felt welcomed by the larger crew of environmental activists who inspired Doug and those who collaborated with him.
And finally, to my seven daughters Francisca, Susan, Maciel, Kimberly, Amy, Zoe, and Akira, I expect that you will always have a little Doug Tompkins in you. While your dad was escaping to the third floor to write, I loved hearing your voices and am long accustomed to writing with the seven of you stopping by to check in with Dad and bringing me a beer, a coffee, or a smile.
My dear Toty, you were so patient on this long, long journey. And wow did we have fun exploring the parks of Doug Tompkins together. I needed you badly during the long stretches of this book and you pushed me with just the right touch of inspiration!
Last and certainly not least, I want to acknowledge the dedication and help of my researcher and development editor, Bud Theisen. His story-crafting skills, interviews, thorough research, and edits of this book made it all possible. During four years he followed my wildest ideas as we tried to track the path left behind by a most remarkable man—Doug Tompkins. You made this great, Bud!
Jonathan Franklin
Punta de Lobos Chile
Photo Section
Battered by a storm, clinging to an icy wall with no ropes, Doug Tompkins makes a daring climb in Scotland on a trip with best friend Yvon Chouinard.
Credit: Yvon Chouinard
Doug Tompkins (left) with Olympic ski medalist Billy Kidd (right) on a break from training at Portillo Ski area in Chile, 1961. Tompkins and Kidd “borrowed” the motorcycles from a BMW dealership for a test ride that lasted until a police alert was issued to apprehend the two gringos locos.
Credit: Tompkins Family Archives
Doug Tompkins founded The North Face in San Francisco, 1964. His first mail order catalog (shown here) promoted the idea that climbing and outdoor life were best enjoyed by packing minimal equipment, traveling light, and living as close to the wild as possible.
Credit: Tompkins Family Archives
The North Face store in San Francisco attracted a crowd, including singers Janis Joplin and Joan Baez. The opening of its 1966 winter season included an in-store concert by the Grateful Dead. As security, Tompkins hired an infamous motorcycle gang, the Hell’s Angels.
Credit: Suki Hill
Four friends calling themselves “The Fun Hogs” preparing to leave Los Angeles in 1968 and drive 16,000 miles to climb Mount Fitz Roy in Patagonia. Doug Tompkins (right) prepares to leave with (right to left) Dick Dorworth, Yvon Chouinard, and Lito Tejada-Flores.
Credit: Patagonia Archives
Best friends Doug Tompkins (left) and Yvon Chouinard (right) on the road during their 1968 road trip to climb Mount Fitz Roy, an icy peak only two teams had summited.
Credit: Lito Tejada Flores
Mount Fitz Roy became visible to the climbers after months of exploring and driving. Chouinard would lead the challenging climb up the dominant middle spire. Snow and blasting wind made camping impossible. On the mountain, they planned to live in ice caves.
Credit: Doug Tompkins
Trapped for weeks in an ice cave meant to be a temporary refuge, Tompkins and his fellow expeditioners nearly ran out of food as eighty-mile-an-hour winds threatened to blow their shelter apart. In the photo Dick Dorworth (right) wrote in his journal alongside Lito Tejada Flores (left).
Credit: Chris Jones
Doug Tompkins became a trailblazing business leader in the early 1970s. From a San Francisco apartment, he helped build what would eventually become a billion-dollar empire.
Credit: Suki Hill
Susie and Doug Tompkins (with their first daughter) worked tirelessly to build Plain Jane, their small clothing startup, into a worldwide brand sold in hundreds of retail outlets.
Credit: Suki Hill
Doug Tompkins with Susie and their daughters, Quincey and Summer, as they prepared to fly in a small plane from California to South America. The parents removed the backseat and put in foam cushions for the children to sleep and play on.
Credit: Paul Ryan
“Image Director” Doug Tompkins supervising a photoshoot for the Esprit catalog. Using employees and “real people” as models, he rejected the idea of paying professionals. “Anyone can hire Brooke Shields,” he quipped.
Credit: Helie Robertson
Design and architecture magazines praised the Esprit style as innovative, daring, and exciting. Much credit was given to “Chairman Doug,” featured here in one of the many cover stories dedicated to explaining the Esprit phenomenon.
Credit: Sharon Risedorph / Blueprint
Doug
Tompkins (in kayak) being lowered over a waterfall by friends. A lifelong adventurer, he spent three or four months each year in the wild. He joked that it was his MBA—Management By Absence.
Credit: Rob Lesser
Kayaking replaced climbing as Doug Tompkins aged. A first descent of a river in Chile nearly got him shot as he inadvertently trespassed the private grounds of dictator Augusto Pinochet.
Credit: Rob Lesser
Flying above Patagonia, Doug Tompkins felt free. During his more than twenty years in the region, he flew some seven thousand hours above the mountains and rivers, allowing him to memorize one of the most spectacular wild areas still remaining on Earth.
Credit: Barbara Cushman Rowell
Clear-cut forest along the border of a US national forest in Washington State. Flying above these brutal clear-cuts motivated Tompkins to abandon his life as a fashion tycoon and focus on halting the destruction.
Credit: Daniel Dancer
Doug Tompkins at home in rural Patagonia, dressed impeccably. Living off the grid in the wild, he spent months brainstorming ways to slow logging, sabotage hydroelectric dams, and halt the construction of environmentally destructive megaprojects.
Credit: Jo Schwartz
Rural Patagonia is so windy that a gust can easily flip over a small airplane. Doug Tompkins knew to tie down his plane after landing in a pasture. As a pilot, he was widely praised. One friend opined that he had “quick, fighter-pilot stuff.”
Credit: Galen Rowell
The wildlands of Patagonia held irresistible attraction to Doug Tompkins. Many areas were accessible only by small boats or aircraft and, pelted by some nine feet of rain a year, held few human settlements.
Credit: Antonio Vizcaino
Doug Tompkins (left) at the campfire with their guide, NBC anchor Tom Brokaw (back right), and Jib Ellison (right) as they explored the Russian Far East on an expedition to track tigers.
Credit: Rick Ridgeway
Yvon Chouinard (left) hiking with Doug Tompkins. Best friends for nearly a half century, they often hiked, climbed, and surfed together. Back in civilization, they worked tirelessly to promote the protection of wild and scenic areas around the world.
Credit: Rick Ridgeway
In his dream to save vast swaths of South America, Doug Tompkins began mapping areas that he could turn into nature sanctuaries. Everyone laughed and told him it was “Mission Impossible.” He took that as a challenge.
Credit: Gary Braasch
Tompkins viewed the power of multinationals as so dangerous that he spent millions on newspaper advertisements to warn the populace. He called corporations “The Invisible Government.” Such advertising campaigns spurred on the antiglobalization movement.
Credit: Doug Tompkins
Wild puma returned to their native haunts and thrived as Doug and Kris Tompkins implemented a conservation strategy known as rewilding.
Credit: Chantal Henderson
Volunteers worked for years to remove some five hundred miles of fencing inside Chacabuco Valley in preparation for enticing native animals to return as part of the creation of Patagonia National Park.
Credit: Patagonia Company Volunteers
The hyperactive and fabulously coordinated Doug Tompkins kayaked and hiked through remote areas of Patagonia as he designed strategies to create a string of national parks. It would be his final brand and his grand legacy: the Route of Parks. When it was finished, it would even be visible from space.
Credit: Beth Wald
In an effort to stop plans for a hydroelectric dam project on a dozen wild rivers, Tompkins helped organize and fund a pro-Patagonia campaign to save the rivers. He paid for billboards promoting the slogan “Patagonia Without Dams.”
Credit: Doug Tompkins
The endangered macaw parrot barely existed in northwest Argentina when Tompkins arrived in 1998. Using animal trainers and veterinarians to teach injured and domesticated parrots how to fly required years of study. To bring back the wild, Doug and Kris Tompkins had to learn how to “rewild” the land.
Credit: Beth Wald
Doug Tompkins (center) working alongside Argentine cowboys in traditional garb.
Credit: Tompkins Conservation
Doug Tompkins (right) in Antarctica, aboard the ship Steve Irwin as it chased a Japanese whaling fleet in an effort to stop the slaughter of some six hundred whales. Tompkins bought the fuel for the mission (costing a quarter million dollars), which was run by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
Credit: Eric Cheng
Reliving his days as a baseball player, Doug Tompkins practices throwing stink bombs onto the decks of Japanese whaling ships during environmental protests off Antarctica’s coast.
Credit: Eric Cheng
Chilean cowboys protest a $3 billion dam project in Patagonia. By highlighting the beauty of the region and its local culture, Tompkins and a broad coalition of activists helped provoke a surge in regional identity that drowned the would-be dam in bad publicity.
Credit: Linde Waidhoffer
Doug and Kris Tompkins often worked twelve-hour days, stuck behind their computers, but whenever possible they found relief by hiking in the hills. Wild puma that ranged nearby made the walks especially exciting. “I began to rewild my mind!” said Kris.
Credit: Rick Ridgeway
About the Author
JONATHAN FRANKLIN is an author and investigative reporter based in Santiago, Chile, and New York City. He has been writing for twenty-eight years for The Washington Post, New York Times, The Guardian, and der Spiegel. His previous two books have been optioned for film, and his previous book, 438 Days, was the number two bestseller on Amazon worldwide.
With hundreds of articles, experience in documentary productions, and broadcast experience with 60 Minutes, CNN, and Voice of America, Franklin has been covering Latin America for more than two decades. His investigation of gold traffickers was portrayed in the series Dirty Money, broadcast worldwide on Amazon in January 2020.
JonathanFranklin.com
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Also by Jonathan Franklin
438 Days: An Extraordinary True Story of Survival at Sea
33 Men: Inside the Miraculous Survival and Dramatic Rescue of the Chilean Miners
Copyright
A WILD IDEA. Copyright © 2021 by Jonathan Franklin. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
Cover design: Faceout Studio
Cover image: Meredith Kohut
Mountain art by Nur Hasan Icon/Shutterstock
All maps © emk.nl; used by permission.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
Digital Edition AUGUST 2021 ISBN: 978-0-06-296416-8
Version 06182021
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-296412-0
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