Looking forward to…

180° South – Conquerors of the Useless.

A commenter on a recent post reminded me of this film, which I had heard about a while ago, but had forgotten to check up on. 180° South retraces a trip down the Pan American Highway taken in 1968 by Yvon Chouinard and best friend Doug Tompkins, two heros of mine.

Yvon Chouinard is the founder and owner of clothing company Patagonia. I was born into a family that has a somewhat unhealthy habit of purchasing things from Patagonia, so I recently took a genetically predisposed step in my life by reading Chouinard’s book, Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman. His description of his 1968 adventure has been a big inspiration for my own impending trip to South America next month. Choinard talked about the Patagonia region of Chilé as being “the last wild place on earth.” For my sake, I hope not too much has changed in the last 5 decades.

Some press images from the film: