Yvon Chouinard is probably most qualified to be called the patron saint of dirtbags, having been one of the originals himself in Yosemite during the 1960s, at one point eating cat food to get through a season on very little money. Then he started Chouinard Equipment, and then Patagonia, and found himself becoming a CEO, author (Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman, 2005), and movie star (180 South, 2010). Some might even think of him as a philosopher because of his eminent ability to produce pithy quotes on a very regular basis, in his books, in movies, or during interviews.
Here are 17 of our favorites from YC:
1. “Taking a trip for six months, you get in the rhythm of it. It feels like you can go on forever doing that. Climbing Everest is the ultimate and the opposite of that. Because you get these high-powered plastic surgeons and CEOs, and you know, they pay $80,000 and have Sherpas put the ladders in place and 8,000 feet of fixed ropes and you get to the camp and you don’t even have to lay out your sleeping bag. It’s already laid out with a chocolate mint on the top. The whole purpose of planning something like Everest is to effect some sort of spiritual and physical gain and if you compromise the process, you’re an asshole when you start out and you’re an asshole when you get back.” – 180° South
2. “Going back to a simpler life based on living by sufficiency rather than excess is not a step backward.” – The Next Hundred Years
3. “The hardest thing in the world is to simplify your life. It’s so easy to make it complex. What’s important is leading an examined life.” – 180° South
4. “To do good, you actually have to do something.” – American Express commercial
5. “You have a whole life in the outdoors, you realize you have a sense of responsibility to protect these wild places.” – 180° South
6. “The climbs that I did in Yosemite took 10 days, hanging from hammocks and putting in hundreds of pitons. Now, high school guys in their gym shorts do them, and they’re back before noon. Then they have lunch and go and climb the north face of Half Dome. That’s the way sport should go.” – Interview, Mountain Magazine
7. “My friends who live in mountain towns end up not climbing anymore. It gets too familiar. Whereas if you visit the mountains, then you’re all excited.” – Interview, Mountain Magazine
8. “You learn that how you got there was what’s important. Not what you accomplished.” – 180° South
9. “If you want to understand the entrepreneur, study the juvenile delinquent. The delinquent is saying with his actions, ‘This sucks. I’m going to do my own thing.” – Let My People Go Surfing
10. “The word adventure has gotten overused. For me, when everything goes wrong – that’s when adventure starts.” – 180° South
11. “I met a lot of young people who asked me what books to read or films to watch. I think that is a good way to start, but theres no substitute for just going there.” – 180° South
12. “The more you know, the less you need.” – Let My People Go Surfing
13. “So, it’s kind of like the quest for the holy grail. Well, you know, who gives a shit what the holy grail is. It’s the quest is what’s important.” – 180° South
14. “Evil doesn’t have to be an overt act; it can be merely the absence of good. If you have the ability, the resources, and the opportunity to do good and you do nothing, that can be evil.” – Let My People Go Surfing
15. “You perfect a sport when you can do all of these things with less stuff. The most impressive ascent of Everest was by the Swedish guy who bicycled from Stockholm to Kathmandu and then soloed Everest and bicycled back to Stockholm. That is cool, as opposed to this huge multinational guided thing with computers and internet cafes at the base of Everest.” – Interview, The Watershed
16. “The reason why we won’t face up to our problems with the environment is that we are the problem. It’s not the corporations out there, it’s not the governments, it’s us. We’re the ones telling the corporations to make more stuff, and make it as cheap and as disposable as possible. We’re not citizens anymore. We’re consumers. That’s what we’re called. It’s just like being an alcoholic and being in denial that you’re an alcoholic. We’re in denial that each and every one of us is the problem. And until we face up to that, nothing’s going to happen. So, there’s a movement for simplifying your life: purchase less stuff, own a few things that are very high quality that last a long time, and that are multifunctional.”– Interview, The Usual Montauk
17. “Only on the fringes of an ecosystem, those outer rings, do evolution and adaptation occur at a furious pace; the inner center o the system is where the entrenched, non-adapting species die off, doomed to failure by maintaining the status quo. Businesses go through the same cycles.” – Let My People Go Surfing
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Pick up a copy of Let My People Go Surfing
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• Bookshop
• Patagonia
180° South: Conquerers of the Useless
Photo by Tom Frost
You forgot one. Please correct me if I’m wrong.
# 18. “On either end of the social spectrum there is a leisure class.”
Ah, yes…I cut one this morning and renumbered….remember, a yawn is a silent scream for coffee….
That quote is one of my favorites. However, it is usually attributed to Eric Beck, not YC. But Yvon is the only person I know of who’s spent much of his life enjoying both ends of the spectrum.
confirmed, its Beck’s quote.
Isn’t that an Eric Beck quote – not Chouinard?
Hey Ace, long time. Wish I was back in the leisure class.
This is one of my favorite, and most oft-quoted Chouinardisms!
Who cares who said it. I’m happy to have read it.
#16 is the best. I wonder if we will ever realize that we are our own worst enemy.
#19. “The solution may be for a lot of the world’s problems is to turn around and take a forward step. You can’t just keep trying to make a flawed system work.” – 180 South
#19. The fear of the unknown is the greatest fear of all.
I remember first going to work there in the early 90’s, and the first thing I can him saying was “I want to alienate 50% of the american public and not have them buy our product.” Was mind blowing to say the least coming out of a pretty conventional business program and hearing that. Had to tighten the belt up a notch at that point.
#10. (addendum) When describing “adventure,” and the rampant overuse of the word, I recall YC saying, “It’s not an adventure until a bird shits on your head.”
Number #1 rings true for a lot of people I know…sad, but true…
If you can find them, for additional excellent quotes go back and read through the old Chouinard Equipment catalogs (70s, 80s), and even early Patagonia catalogs, in which Yvon was forming his philosophy (some direct quotes of his, some copywriting (and some notable guest writer appearances)), letting it evolve in those early years into something we might call, if we were to put a label on it, the Dirtbag Manifesto (except that he would never accept, I think, so formal a label – and rightly so).
#1 is my favorite. I nearly fell off my chair when watching 180 Degrees South.
I still have the 1980 Great Pacific Iron Works catalog.
Outdoor gear has come a very long way since then and so unfortunately have our attitudes but Yvon has stayed true to his beliefs.
I’ve long ago given up rock climb, most of my living friends from back then have but I do fish and if there’s something I need like waders or wading boots I only buy Patagonia. Nothing made lasts forever but you can always squeeze just that little more from a Patagonia product than you can from anybody else because he designs and makes it that way.
Trying to live #16 by simplifying and buying less stuff. Sadly, spent an hour this morning in the Patagonia catalog, lusting with feelings of need. I still have my first navy blue pile jacket and many dozens of well-worn pieces of Patagonia clothing. But the new stuff is so bright and shiny and somehow better. It’s already made, so me buying it won’t hurt the environment any more, right? I fail…
Regarding #7: Mr. Chouinard, those friends have lost their way. Anyone who says these mountains or deserts are too familiar just aren’t opening their eyes, hearts, souls to the absolute gift that is living where you play. Every day is unique and amazing and there for the taking.
If you bring the bivy gear, you will need the bivy gear. Go light.
Fred Beckey should be the patron saint of dirtbags, No one else that I’m aware of has even come close to his accomplishments in that regard. Yvonne Chouinard could be considered one of Fred’s dirtbag apprentices.
This is my favorite from his book.
“When I die and go to hell, the devil is going to make me the marketing director for a cola company. I’ll be in charge of trying to sell a product that no one needs, is identical to its competition, and can’t be sold on its merits. I’d be competing head-on in the cola wars, on price, distribution, advertising, and promotion, which would indeed be hell for me. Remember, I’m the kid who couldn’t play competitive games. I’d much rather design and sell products so good and unique that they have no competition.” —Yvon Chouinard
Thanks for sharing!
I’ve just found your site, and as a skier/climber/backpacker, as well as a big fan of Y. Chouinard and Patagonia, I absolutely love what you post!
Love from Argentina 🙂
I absolutely love this photo of Yvon and would love to frame it.
Are you able to help me in paying for a print?
Thanks, Danielle
Hi Danielle, try this: https://www.frostworksclimbing.com/frame.htm
I have been somewhat perplexed by Yvon and his company for years. On one hand, he does tend to put his money where his mouth is, trying to cut down on the sale of new clothes and recommends buying used, he is a generous donor to environmental causes and the like. On the other hand, the more he preaches this the more it sells his clothes and the more environmental impact Patagonia has. It is a catch 22. I think the most honest thing for him would be to shut it all down and go back to being a real dirt bag. Of course he wouldn’t be able to have funds to donate or a platform to speak from. It’s almost like he owns the match stick business and the local fire department.
This article is worth the price of admission. Thanks AJ, you made a bright spot in a dreary year. YC is a national treasure.
And the price of admission was…? 🙂
Love all of these – thank you for putting so many good words to try and live by in one place. A very special man indeed.
I’ve got a quote of his on my studio wall that rings true for me. “Nothing should be made that cannot be fixed.”
I like to simplify #1 to “if you compromise the process, you’re an asshole when you start out and you’re an asshole when you get back”
“An expedition is when your three (3) pairs of underwear are labelled July, August and September.” -Yvon Chouinard : 2001 Palmyra Atoll ‘Expedition’ with OneWorldJourneys (on which I was the videographer)
Reading and writing about dirtbags from a computer and phone. Amazing the irony.
“Make yourself indispensable
and you will be.”
UPDATE: Favorite Quote (printed on Men’ Stand Up Shorts tag – August 2020)
“Vote the Assholes Out”