Chris Tompkins

11-14
3PM

Chris Tompkins co-founded Patagonia with Yvonne Chenard.

While I was sleeping in my tent, I overheard Jamie ask Scott if he was ready to go meet Chris. We had heard earlier in the week that Chris Tompkins would be visiting the estancia for a few days - checking up on things. Chris and her husband (founder of North Face) bought the land and started Conservacion Patagonica.

As usual on the estancia, you miss out unless your ears and eyes are persistantly attentive. I threw myself out of the tent and was surprised to see Paula, the CP volunteer coordinator, standing outside my tent. She is never on the estancia because her two sons go to school in Coyhaique - she lives there with her boys while school is in session. We greeted each other in the traditional Chilean way - a kiss on the right cheek - and headed to the Tompkins guest house a few hundred feet from where are tents were pitched.

Chris was sitting in the foyer as we entered the beautiful stone fortress - meticulously but wonderfully decorated - Large photos of the park, argentinian carved wood furniture and leather couches, along with eco-oriented books on the coffee table. Chris, head to toe in Patagonia, sat in her chair bare-foot by the fire, looking cozy and a little annoyed that we were there, as if this were some obligatory meeting she had to attend.

As if in an interview, she had us each give a 30 second tell me about yourself speech. We awkwardly said where we were from, where we went to school, what we do for a living, and for how long we plan to volunteer. When that ended, James asked her to do the same.

Turns out Chris was in the right place at the right time. Chris was born into wealth. She grew up on a ranch in California and had Yvonne Chenard as a neighbor at her family beach ouse. Chris started working for Yvonne at age 15, making 2 bucks an hour helping him with the odds and ends of his climbing gear (mostly pitons) business, which he ran out of his garage.

Chris was a ski racer, but never into climbing as much as her acquaintences were. I dont have the head for it, Chris says, and if she climbed she followed others up routes. One day, Yvonne asked Chris to help him design clothes for climbing and surfing, and Patagonia was born. Chris headed Patagonia for 22 years before retiring. She said she was eager to exit the clothing business. She is still on the board of directors.

She met her husband Doug in Chile, each having been married previously, and fell in love. They started buying up land to preserve in Chile and Argentina. Now they live in Chile close to 10 months out of the year, returning to California occassionaly to do business.

Chris ushered us out shortly after her speech, saying she needed to get online.

Some would say Im lucky to have met Chris, and I must agree. Meeting her has helped form my opinion of the Park and how it is being developed. More on this later, but my opinion is best characterized as Roger and Ebert used to say - two thumbs down.