Of course, like every other teenage kid I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life.

When I was 16 years old, I took off and drove across the country to Wyoming.

Went into the Wind River Range and discovered mountains.

In 1973, Yvonne Chinard founded Patagonia.

I never wanted to be a businessman.

All I wanted to do was do my craft and climb mountains.

So then I had to figure out a way to where I was going to be a businessman, but I was going

to do it completely on my own terms.

Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, inspire and implement solutions to the environmental

crisis.

Join us at Patagonia.com.

You're listening to the Dirt Bag Diaries, a production of duct tape and beer, with additional

support for new Belgian brewing and Kuat racks.

In the golden days, the chewed dirt bags lived to climb.

They didn't work, didn't have a permanent address, they didn't have sponsors.

They ate the leftovers off tourist plates and slept in beater cars, or in caves, or wherever

they could, without having to pay.

They stayed in one place as long as the weather facilitated climbing, then migrated to the

next destination where climbing was in season.

In the past 40 years, our world, the outdoor world, whether it be climbing, kayaking, skiing,

it seems to have grown exponentially more crowded, more expensive, more regulated, and

rules have grown more strictly enforced.

...