TOPHER DONAHUE - a storyteller for the modern age

Click here for a free ebook download of Designed by Adventure, 30 Years of Outdoor Research, Topher Donahue's most recent book.

In today's world of marketing campaigns that can be measured in minutes, many savvy companies are telling their stories through both the most modern methods as well as the traditional, timeless medium of books. With decades of journalism experience, Topher Donahue digs in to find the human story within the business story.  

In 2005, Canadian Mountain Holidays, the world's first heli-ski company, commissioned Topher Donahue to author a book chronicling the company's colorful 40-year history. The result is Bugaboo Dreams, a 293-page book that captures the personalities, the corporate culture, the stories, the epic adventures, and the excitement of  one of the world's most thrilling forms of recreation.

Published by Rocky Mountain Books in Canada and printed in the United States.

Here's what a few readers had to say about it: 

"If you're a connoisseur of the high and wild, just hearing the name "Bugaboos" is enough to make you feverish with wanderlust. Topher Donahue captures not just the landscape but the people and dreams that shape these otherworldly peaks."    -John Flynn, Executive Travel Editor, San Francisco Chronicle

"Bugaboo Dreams is a marvelously detailed account of the evolution of heli-skiing and -hiking in the Canadian Rockies. More importantly, however, it is a story of the remarkable man behind the business, Hans Gmoser, whose passion and commitment to the mountain environment led to a lifetime of bringing others to recreate in these places he loved the most." - Rebecca Martin, Executive Director, Expedition Council, National Geographic Society

 "The stars were aligned to create this remarkable story: a vast mountain wilderness of rock spires and undulating glaciers and a visionary individual who inspired others to help transform his Bugaboo dreams into reality. Topher Donahue has captured the tale in an engaging manner that makes for a great read." - Bernadette MacDonald, author and former Director of The Banff Mountain Film and Book Festivals

When Outdoor Research decided to share the 30-year history of the company with the world, they hired Topher Donahue to author their book. From the heyday of outdoor gear innovation in the early 80s, to overseas manufacturing and military contracts Designed by Adventure, 30 years of Outdoor Research reveals the transformational history of both Outdoor Research and American manufacturing.

Here's what the executive team at Outdoor Research had to say about working with Topher Donahue on the project:

"Thanks Topher.  I just read it start to finish one more time and I have to say, its SO much better than what I could have anticipated when I tried to talk everyone out of doing it at all last year!  At least to me it seems to both tell the story of the early years in a truly interesting way while treating modern times in a way that conveys the sense of the excitement within the company without seeming like its written by the marketing department.

Very well done my friend, thanks so much for all the work you put in.  I suspect there will be more lasting value in it than we planned on at the outset." - Dan Nordstrom - President, Outdoor Research

"Your work on this project just blew away any expectations that we had going into it. It has become so much more significant than just a means to chronical the 30 year history of the brand. Thanks for all of your hard work." - Jordan Wand, Vice President, Product & Marketing, Outdoor Research