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Doug Tompkins Dies in Kayaking Accident in Patagonia

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    • Doug Tompkins Dies in Kayaking Accident in Patagonia

      After a kayaking accident on Tuesday afternoon, December 8, Douglas Tompkins—adventurer, climber, conservationist and founder of The North Face—died in southern Chile's Patagonia region. Tompkins, along with Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard and four other friends, were paddling in Lago General Carrerra, which straddles the Chile-Argentina border. At about 11 in the morning, high winds and nine-foot waves capsized their boats. According to a press release from the Chilean Navy, the six were adrift in the lake's Avellano sector. Three of the kayakers swam to an island. A military patrol boat picked up three of the men, while a helicopter rescued the other three. Tompkins, after floating in the 40-degree water for a couple hours, was air-evacuated to the Coyhaique hospital, along with two other kayakers, with severe hypothermia. He died shortly afterward in the intensive care unit. The other men—Rick Ridgeway, Patagonia vice president and part of the first American team to summit K2; Jib Ellison, river guide and Blue Skye founder; Weston Boyles, Rios to Rivers founder and conservationist; Lorenzo Alvarez, owner of adventure travel outfitter Bio Bio Expeditions; and Chouinard—were also hospitalized but all are in stable condition.



      alpinist.com/doc/web15y/newswi…ing-accident-in-patagonia
      its all good

    • Da Wolf wrote:

      why no wet suits?
      Any wetsuit thin enough to kayak with is 5mm or less. After 4 hours in 40° water up to your neck your dead. With a drysuit your still dead because you can't wear too much clothing inside a drysuit when kayaking because you will die of heat exhaustion if your not in the water. They had about two hours to get out of the water.
      Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.
      Dr. Seuss Cof123

    • My condolences.

      We were in the north Atlantic Ocean for a training exercise in the late 1960s. An aircraft went down. Due to us stopping to look for survivors and pick up debris every few miintes, there were announcements over the PA system about how far dry land was, and the water temperature. 38F. Land was over 200 miles. The US Navy was still using those lousy rescue floats with net flooring when a crew abandons ship. It wouldn't have saved anyone. The nearest other ship was 45 minutes away. Maybe a few of us would have lived, out of 210 officers and crew. After about 45 minutes, the announcements stopped. Evidently someone realized how demoralizing they were. Anyway, I was on one of the signal bridge spotlights, and I spotted the only remains we found. Not a pleasant experience, but we had to go look for survivors.
      --
      "What do you mean its sunrise already ?!", me.

    • JimBlue wrote:

      My condolences.

      We were in the north Atlantic Ocean for a training exercise in the late 1960s. An aircraft went down. Due to us stopping to look for survivors and pick up debris every few miintes, there were announcements over the PA system about how far dry land was, and the water temperature. 38F. Land was over 200 miles. The US Navy was still using those lousy rescue floats with net flooring when a crew abandons ship. It wouldn't have saved anyone. The nearest other ship was 45 minutes away. Maybe a few of us would have lived, out of 210 officers and crew. After about 45 minutes, the announcements stopped. Evidently someone realized how demoralizing they were. Anyway, I was on one of the signal bridge spotlights, and I spotted the only remains we found. Not a pleasant experience, but we had to go look for survivors.
      Been on a similar mission. It still haunts me the only survivor found died as I and others were attempting to combat hypothermia and he went into cardiac arrest. We performed CPR for hours until a doc said to stop.

      Lest we forget.....


      SSgt Ray Rangel - USAF
      SrA Elizabeth Loncki - USAF
      PFC Adam Harris - USA
      MSgt Eden Pearl - USMC

    • hikerboy wrote:

      those guys are all climbing legends and knew their shot.patagonia is a pretty extreme environment, the weather usually absolutely sucks.
      its a shame, but i dont think any one of them was unprepared.
      Yes, but it would appear that doing anything with Yvon Chouinard is dangerous. I hope those guys weren't wearing Patagonia clothing.....I'd hate to see Patagonia absorbed by the North Face Estate!
      Cheesecake> Ramen :thumbsup: