Juan Pablo Orrego

Douglas Tompkins was a world-renowned adventurer, entrepreneur, and conservationist. The founder of The North Face and cofounder of Esprit, Doug spent the first half of his life building successful, global brands, while simultaneously adventuring around the world, completing first descents of the world’s toughest rivers. In 1968 Doug embarked on a trip to Chile, driving with friends from California to the tip of Patagonia. Documented in the film Mountain of Storms, the trip solidified Doug’s place as a rock climbing legend. In the early 1990s, Doug sold his part of Esprit and turned his entrepreneurial energies to land and wildlife conservation projects in South America, working alongside his wife, Kristine McDivitt Tompkins, the former CEO of Patagonia, Inc.

Conquerors of the Useless follows Jeff Johnson as he retraces the epic 1968 journey of his heroes Yvon Chouinard and Doug Tompkins to Patagonia. Along the way he gets shipwrecked off Easter Island, surfs the longest wave of his life - and prepares himself for a rare ascent of Cerro Corcovado. Jeff's life turns when he meets up in a rainy hut with Chouinard and Tompkins who, once driven purely by a love of climbing and surfing, now value above all the experience of raw nature - and have come to Patagonia to spend their fortunes to protect it.