180° SOUTH: Conquerers of the Useless

[Beorn]

Dude, this documentary looks awesome. In it Yvon Chouinard, owner of environmentally friendly company patagonia, and Doug Tompkins set out to retrace their 1968 trip in which they surf, ski and climb their way to Patagonia. Their original trip resulted in over 2 million acres of wilderness in patagonia receiving permanent protection.

[YOUTUBE="cWBz_pxYC0A"]180° SOUTH[/YOUTUBE]

"The hardest thing to do is simplify your life... it's so easy to make it complex"

More info available at 180

I gotta wait till june for it to come out on dvd... there's no way it will be showing at any movie theater around me.

 

[ObeyBunny]

Seems like you'd be a fan of 'Into the wild' (Chris McCandless is the main character)

 

[Beorn]

Seems like you'd be a fan of 'Into the wild' (Chris McCandless is the main character)

Yeah, I've read the book and seen the movie. I enjoyed them both.

It seems to me though that Yvon and Chris are very different in their views of ethics. They both viewed simplicity of life as desirable, but chris held to a strict view of asceticism that required that he give up all of his money, $24K, and give it to charity. Whereas Yvon built one of the worlds leading outdoor clothing and equipment companies. Since 1985 patagonia has given $34 mill to charity.

Also, Yvon was one of the leading mountain climbers in the world when he went to patagonia. So his trip up the mountain wasn't nearly as stupid as Chris's trip to alaska.