Jimmy Chin (born October 12, 1973) is an American professional climber, mountaineer, skier, director and photographer. He has organized and led numerous climbing, ski-mountaineering and exploratory expeditions to China, Pakistan, Nepal, 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 Garwhal Himalayas of Northern India, crossing the Chang Tang Plateau in north-western Tibet on foot. Chin's work documenting expeditions and climbs has been featured in numerous publications, including National Geographic, The New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Outside magazine and others. In 2019, Chin was awarded the National Geographic "Photographer's Photographer Award" by his peers. His first book of photography documenting his career in the mountains, There and Back, became a New York Times Best Seller in 2021. Chin co-directs with his wife Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi. Together they directed the documentary Meru, which won numerous awards including the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival and was shortlisted for an Academy Award, and Free Solo, which won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, a BAFTA and seven Primetime Emmys. Free Solo had the highest-grossing opening weekend in history for a documentary.

Filmography

• 2026Everest: The Other Side — Self, Director, Writer, Producer, Director of Photography
• 2026The Lake — Executive Producer
• 2025Lost in the Jungle — Director, Producer
• 2025Love+War — Director, Producer
• 2024Endurance — Director, Producer
• Photographer — Executive Producer, Director
• Angel City — Executive Producer
• 2023NYAD — Director
• 2023Wild Life — Self, Director, Producer, Director of Photography
• Edge of the Unknown with Jimmy Chin — Self, Executive Producer
• 2022Return to Space — Director, Producer
• 202114 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible — Self, Executive Producer
• 2021La Liste : Everything or Nothing
• 2021The Rescue — Producer, Director
• 2018Free Solo — Self, Director, Producer, Director of Photography
• 2018Queen Maud Land
• 2018Reel Rock 13
• 2018What if He Falls? — Director
• 2015Meru — Himself, Director of Photography, Producer
• 2012Reel Rock 7 — Self, Director
• 2012The Shark's Fin — Director
• Reel Rock
• 1991Strings — VFX Artist
• Bartali — Director, Producer
• In Tandem — Executive Producer
• Into The Unknown — Creator

Appearances as themselves (6)

• 2021Torn — Self
• 2020K2: The Impossible Descent — Himself
• 2019Fine Lines — Self
• 2011Ueli Steck - Speed, The Fastest Man on the Mountain — Self
• LIVE with Kelly and Mark — Self - Guest
• The Oscars — Self