Jimmy Chin


Jimmy Chin is an American professional climber, photographer, and Academy Award winning film director.
He has organized and led numerous climbing, ski-mountaineering and exploratory expeditions to China, Pakistan, Nepal, Greenland, Tanzania, Chad, Mali, South Africa, Borneo, India and Argentina. His achievements include climbing and skiing Mount Everest from the summit, making first ascents of big walls and alpine towers in the Karakoram Mountains of Pakistan and the Garhwal Himalayas of Northern India, and crossing the Chang Tang Plateau in north-western Tibet on foot.
His work has been featured in numerous publications, including National Geographic, Outside, and Men's Journal. He collaborated with his wife, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, to direct the documentary films Meru and Free Solo, which won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 91st Academy Awards.

Childhood

Chin's parents escaped China to Taiwan during the Communist Revolution. They then moved to Minnesota where Chin was raised. He participated in martial arts and competitive swimming. He attended Carleton College.

Expedition career

Early in his career, Jimmy Chin organized several climbing expeditions to Pakistan's Karakoram Mountains. He signed a sponsorship agreement with The North Face in 2001.
In 2002, he was asked to join a National Geographic expedition to make an unsupported crossing of the remote Chang Tang Plateau in Tibet with Galen Rowell, Rick Ridgeway and Conrad Anker. The expedition was featured in National Geographic's April 2003 issue and documented in Rick Ridgeway's book The Big Open.
In 2003, Chin headed to Everest with Stephen Koch. They attempted the direct North Face via the Japanese Couloir to the Hornbein Couloir in alpine style, eschewing supplemental oxygen, fixed ropes and camps. They were unsuccessful and both were nearly killed in an avalanche.
In May 2004, Chin climbed Everest with David Breashears and Ed Viesturs while filming for Working Title on a feature film project with Stephen Daldry. Chin later accompanied Ed Viesturs to Annapurna in 2005. Viesturs successfully climbed Annapurna and finished his quest to climb all of the world's 8000 meter peaks without oxygen. Chin photographed the expedition and the story was featured in the September 2005 issue of Men's Journal.
In October 2006, he achieved the first successful American ski descent of Mount Everest with Kit and Rob DesLauriers. They skied from the summit and are the only people to have skied the South East Ridge route.
In May 2007, Chin joined the Altitude Everest Expedition as a climber and expedition photographer in an attempt to retrace George Mallory and Sandy Irvine's fateful last journey up the North Face of Everest.
Outside of major Himalayan expeditions, Chin has participated in numerous exploratory climbing and skiing expeditions to Baffin Island, Borneo, Mali, Chad, the Pitcairn Islands, Antarctica and other remote regions of the planet.
In April 2011, Chin survived a class-4-avalanche in the Grand Tetons, his home mountain range.
In 2011 Chin, Conrad Anker and Renan Ozturk made the first ascent of the Shark's Fin route on Meru Central in the Garhwal Himalayas in India. They had tried the same climb in 2008, but were forced to turn around 100m from the summit. His film of the climb, Meru, was released in 2015.

Filmmaking career

Chin began filming in 2003 under the mentorship of Rick Ridgeway. He was a cinematographer for the National Geographic television special Deadly Fashion. He later worked with David Breashears, shooting Ed Viesturs climbing to the summit of Mount Everest. He worked as a cinematographer with Chris Malloy of Woodshed films on the feature documentary 180 South.
In 2010, Chin started the commercial production company Camp 4 Collective with Tim Kemple and Renan Ozturk. He sold the company to his partners in 2014.
Chin collaborated with his wife Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi to produce and direct the feature-length documentary Meru, about his 2011 climb. It premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, winning the US Audience Documentary Award.
Alex Honnold and Chin started climbing together in 2009 but it wasn't until 2015 that Honnold chose Chin and wife Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi to film his process of climbing up El Capitan.
On June 3, 2017, Chin led a team that filmed Alex Honnold on the first ever rope-free ascent of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. Collaborating again with Vasarhelyi, they produced and directed the feature-length documentary Free Solo. Free Solo went on to win the at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival, the 2018 BAFTA Award for Best Documentary, and the 2018 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

Philanthropy

Chin has worked with charities and campaigns supporting environmental rights. He has given master classes for the Rowell / International Campaign for Tibet to support Tibetan wildlife and culture. He has also partnered with the American Alpine Club to create an intentional resource for grieving. His work with The Access Fund supports national monument rights. Chin is also a member of the Conservation Alliance, offering photography services in support of charity.

Personal life

Chin was born and raised in Mankato, Minnesota, and graduated from Wayland Academy. Both his parents are from China, his father was born in Wenzhou, and his mother was born in Harbin. They both worked as librarians.
He is a 1996 alumnus of Carleton College, where he received a BA in Asian Studies. He first became involved in climbing while at Carleton. After college, he became a climbing dirtbag, despite his parents' disapproval. He serendipitously discovered photography when he borrowed his sleeping climbing partner's camera to take a photo. They sold the picture for $500, and this started his photography career.
On May 26, 2013, Chin married film director and producer Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi. They have two children, Marina and James.

Notable ascents

Climbing
Ski mountaineering

As director