Lago General Carrera, Patagonia Region of Chile

The world lost a great conservationist on December 8th. Doug Tompkins, the co-founder of The North Face clothing company, died after a kayaking accident in Patagonia, a region he was very familiar with and had fought to protect. Sadly he met his fate on this large and beautiful lake on the border of Chile and Argentina. We were viewing the lake satellite image on TopoZone to see where he was at the time of the accident and wanted to share this remote place with our site visitors.

Doug will be remembered for his work to protect land and create national parks in South America. He created the Conservation Land Trust and other conservation-based foundations in the region.

To see a personal side of Doug Thomkins consider watching the movie 180 Degrees South in which he shares some travels with his good friend Yvon Chouinard who founded the clothing company Patagonia.

Lago General Carrera translated is General Carrera Lake (Carrera is used many ways in Spanish but typically means “race”). On the Argentina side of the border this is known as Lake Buenos Aires even though it is nowhere near the major city of Buenos Aires. It’s at an elevation of 217 meters and has a surface area of 1850 square kilometers.