Remembering Doug Tompkins, the Founder of The North Face and Esprit Who Chucked It All to Save the Earth

At least he died doing what he loved. That was paramount among a variety of similar sentiments appended to clips and links yesterday as news circulated that Doug Tompkins, founder of The North Face and Esprit and the new century’s most ambitious conservationist, succumbed to severe hypothermia on Dec. 8, following a kayak accident on Lago General Carrera, on the Chilean-Argentine border. He was 72.

At the time of the accident, Tompkins was traveling with a group that included a few of his best friends: Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia; Rick Ridgeway, a member of the first American team to summit K2, the world’s second-tallest peak; and Lorenzo Alvarez, owner of the adventure travel outfitter, Bio Bio Expeditions. Tompkins and Chouinard first explored the region together 50 years ago. A documentary of their 1968 first ascent of Fitz Roy, Patagonia’s signature mountain, can be seen today as the secret origin myth—or, perhaps, the Zapruder film—of the $289 billion outdoor retailing industry.