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Jimmy Chin

Jimmy Chin is an American professional mountain athlete, photographer, skier, film director, and author.

Climbing career
From 1999 to 2001, Chin organized 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 Geographics April 2003 issue 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-metre 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 DesLauriers and Rob DesLauriers. They skied from the summit and are the only people to have skied the South Pillar Route on the Lhotse Face. 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. In 2007, Chin ventured to Borneo with Mark Synnott, Conrad Anker, and Alex Honnold to make the first ascent of a 2,500-foot overhanging alpine big wall at an elevation of 14,000 feet on Mount Kinabalu. In 2008, Chin, Conrad Anker, and Renan Ozturk made their first attempt on the "Shark's Fin", a 1,500-foot blade of granite leading to the summit of 21,000-foot Meru Central, in India's Garhwal Himalaya range. They spent 19 days on the wall but were forced to turn back just 100 meters short of the summit. In 2009, on an expedition to Chad's remote Ennedi Desert, Chin, Alex Honnold, Renan Ozturk, Mark Synott, and James Pearson made numerous first ascents of sandstone towers and arches. 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 October 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 theaters in 2015. In 2017, Chin and Anker established a new route on Ulvetanna Peak, called ''The Wolf's Fang'', in Queen Maud Land, in Antarctica. In 2020, Chin, Anker, Jim Morrison, and Hilaree Nelson climbed and skied Mount Vinson, the highest peak in Antarctica, in a one-day push. The team spent less than 48 hours at the mountain. They then attempted to climb and ski the French Route on Mount Tyree, the second-highest peak in Antarctica but turned around due to avalanche danger. ==The Finding of Andrew Irvine's Remains==
The Finding of Andrew Irvine's Remains
In 2024, exactly a century after Irvine's disappearance, an expedition led by Chin recovered a detached foot inside a boot and sock on Rongbuk Glacier. The sock was embroidered with 'A.C. Irvine' and is believed to be Andrew Irvine's. Per Chin, it is suspected the remains had melted out of the glacier about a week prior to discovery. Due to the presence of scavenging birds, Chin and his team removed the foot and turned it over to the China Tibet Mountaineering Association, the governmental agency which oversees the North Side of Mount Everest. ==Filmmaking career==
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. 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 People's Choice Award: Documentaries at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival, the 2018 BAFTA Award for Best Documentary, and the 2018 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. and received generally positive reviews. Their 2022 documentary Return to Space centered on Elon Musk and SpaceX. The 8-part documentary series Edge of the Unknown with Jimmy Chin premiered on Disney Plus on September 7, 2022. Chin and Chai co-directed and produced 2 episodes, while Chin was featured throughout the series. Chin and Chai's 2023 National Geographic documentary Wild Life follows Kristine Tompkins and Doug Tompkins for decades of their love story, life of entrepreneurial and conservation work, culminating with their visionary effort to create national parks in Chile and Argentina through the largest private land donation in history. Co-directed with Natalie Hewit, Chin and Chai's 2024 National Geographic documentary, Endurance, tells the story of Ernest Shackleton's Trans-Antarctic expedition in the 1910's and the 2022 rediscovery of his ship, which had sunk to the bottom of the Weddell Sea, by the Endurance22 mission. The film includes preserved film footage from the original expedition's photographer, Frank Hurley. From May to June 2025, he participated in the filming of the 14-episode outdoor exploration documentary series Exploring the Unknown with Wang Yibo Season 2, initiated by Discovery Channel and Wang Yibo, where he served as a rock climbing instructor. Chin is currently working on a National Geographic documentary on Jim Morrison, who became the first person to ski down the Hornbein Couloir on the North Face of Mount Everest in October 2025. ==Personal life==
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. 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. Chin and Vasarhelyi filed for divorce in 2025. As of 2015, Chin splits his time between New York City and Jackson, Wyoming. ==Notable ascents==
Notable ascents
Climbing • Meru-Sharks Fin, FA of East Face VII 5.10 A4 M7, India • Mt. Everest, South Col Route, Nepal • Ulvetanna, FA of the Anker Chin Route, VII 5.10, A3, Antarctica • Mt. Kinabalu, FA V 5.12 A2, Borneo • Kaga Pomori, FA IV; 5.11R South Face, Mali, Africa • Chiru Mustagh, first ascent Southeast Ridge, 21,000 ft., Xinjiang, China • Free solo of the Grand Traverse, Grand Teton National Park, 12 hours car to car • Tahir Tower, FA VII 5.11 A3, Kondus Valley, Karakoram, Pakistan • 15 one day ascents of El Capitan • Native Son, VI 5.9 A4, Pacific Ocean Wall, VI 5.10, A3+ • Beatrice Tower, FA VII 5.10+ A3+, Charakusa Valley, Karakoram, Pakistan • Fathi Brakk, FA VI 5.10+ A3 WI4, Charakusa Valley, Karakoram, Pakistan Ski mountaineering • Mt. Everest, South Pillar Route, first American ski descent • Tai Yang Peak, first ascent and ski descent, Xinjiang, China • Chang Zheng Peak (22,800 ft.), first ski descent, Central Rongbuk, Tibet • 25 ski descents of the Grand Teton • First solo winter ski descent of the Grand Teton • Skied the Grand Teton, Middle Teton and South Teton 10 hours car to car • Skied multiple lines off all the primary peaks in the Teton Range including the Newcomb Couloir on the north face of Buck Mountain, the Spooky Face on Nez Perce, the Amore Vida on the South Teton, the Glacier Route on the Middle Teton, the Colvin on Mount Owen, the East Face of Teewinot and the Skillet on Mount Moran among others. • Denali, West Buttress, Rescue Gully ==Publications==
Publications
There and Back (2021) ==Filmography==
Filmography
Feature film directorNyad (2023) Feature documentary producer / directorMeru (2015) • Free Solo (2018) • The Rescue (2021) • 14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible (2021) • Return to Space (2022) • Wild Life (2023) • Endurance (2024) • Love+War (2025) Instructor MasterClass' Jimmy Chin Teaches Adventure Photography == Film awards and honors ==
Awards
• Navy SEAL Foundation Fire in the Gut Award (2024) • Nominee Piolet D'Or International Climbing award • Outside Magazine's Adventurers of the Year 2012 • American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) Sports and Adventure Winner • Society of American Travel Writers (SATW) Foundation's Award • National Geographic and Microsoft Emerging Explorers Grant • Galen Rowell Memorial Photography Award • Lyman Spitzer Adventure Award: K7 Climbing Expedition • Polartec Grant Recipient: K7 Climbing Expedition • Honorary Doctorate, Sustainability Science, Unity College, Unity, Maine • Carleton College Alumni Award for Distinguished Achievement • National Geographic Photographer's Photographer Award (2020) • National Geographic Further Award (2020) • Murie Spirit of Conversation Award (2019) • Audience Award at Sundance Film Festival for Meru (2015) • Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for Free Solo (2018) • GQ Man of the Year (2021) • Ken Burn's American Heritage Prize (2022) ==See also==
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