Jimmy Chin

Directing

Jimmy Chin

Born 1973-10-12 · Mankato, Minnesota, USA

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.

Acting credits

14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible poster
7.3

In 2019, Nepalese mountain climber Nirmal “Nims” Purja set out to do the unthinkable by climbing the world’s fourteen highest summits in less than seven months. (The previous record was eight years). He called the effort “Project Possible 14/7” and saw it as a way to inspire others to strive for greater heights in any pursuit. The film follows his team as they seek to defy naysayers and push the limits of human endurance.

14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible

2021

Free Solo poster
7.9

Follow Alex Honnold as he attempts to become the first person to ever free solo climb Yosemite's 3,000 foot high El Capitan wall. With no ropes or safety gear, this would arguably be the greatest feat in rock climbing history.

Free Solo

2018

Torn poster
7.0

When world renowned climber Alex Lowe was tragically lost in a deadly avalanche, his best friend and climbing partner went on to marry his widow and help raise his three sons. This profoundly intimate film from eldest son Max, captures the family's intense personal journey toward understanding as they finally lay him to rest.

Torn

2021

Wild Life poster
7.1

From Oscar-winning filmmakers Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, "Wild Life" follows conservationist Kris Tompkins on an epic, decades-spanning love story as wild as the landscapes she dedicated her life to protecting. After falling in love in mid-life, Kris and the outdoorsman and entrepreneur Doug Tompkins left behind the world of the massively successful outdoor brands they'd helped pioneer like Patagonia, The North Face, and Esprit, and turned their attention to a visionary effort to create National Parks throughout Chile and Argentina. "Wild Life" chronicles the highs and lows of their journey to effect the largest private land donation in history.

Wild Life

2023

Meru poster
7.4

Meru is the electrifying story of three elite American climbers—Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin, and Renan Ozturk—bent on achieving the impossible.

Meru

2015

Ueli Steck - Speed, Der schnellste Mann am Berg poster
10.0

He climbed solo, without a rope, the north face of the Eigers in 2h47. Below him the rock wall steigen über 1000 Meter ab. Mehr Ueli Steck, the lone wolf, does not lose his temper. For a year, Steck has meticulously prepared this record of less than three hours. The portrait of an extraordinary man who takes us on a journey to the most beautiful and challenging peaks in the world.

Ueli Steck - Speed, Der schnellste Mann am Berg

2011

K2: The Impossible Descent poster
6.8

On July 22 2018, a Polish ski mountaineer clicked into his bindings at an altitude of 8,611m to make history. Follow Andrzej Bargiel’s expedition from Poland to Pakistan, as he descends K2 on skis.

K2: The Impossible Descent

2020

La Liste : Everything or Nothing poster
4.0

Follows freeskiers Heitz and Anthamatten as they travel to the world’s high-altitude mountain ranges and attempt to make their distinct mark on those giant peaks, exploring the absolute limit of human possibility.

La Liste : Everything or Nothing

2021

Fine Lines poster
6.0

For nearly three years, director Dina Khreino interviewed world-class mountain climbing athletes, listening to what compels them to leave behind families, friends, and everyday comforts to risk everything for a fleeting glimpse into the unknown. What she found was a tribe, a diverse group of professional adventurers and amateur philosophers forged by the ultimate test of body, mind, and spirit. In the face of shifting winds, sheer granite cliffs, and impossible odds, they climb. Each for their own reason, but every one connected by the vertical world. In this rarefied air, these athletes are fundamentally changed, not just as climbers, but as human beings.

Fine Lines

2019

Reel Rock 7 poster
7.5

The biggest stories from the climbing world, told with humor, heart, and mind-bending action. Featuring Alex Honnold in Honnold 3.0, Chris Sharma and Adam Ondra in La Dura Dura, Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin and Renan Ozturk in Shark's Fin, The Wide Boyz, Sasha DiGiulian, Daila Ojeda and more.

Reel Rock 7

2012

Queen Maud Land poster
1.0

A dream team of six elite climbers mount an expedition to one of the world's last great climbing frontiers: the remote frozen towers of Antarctica. Jimmy Chin and Conrad Anker tackle a new route on the 3,600foot Ulvetanna; Savannah Cummins and Anna Pfaff summit the towering Holtanna; and Alex Honnold and Cedar Wright make a harrowing and hilarious blitz of 13 different spires spread across the ice field, including one pitch that Honnold calls "the scariest I have ever led." Queen Maud Land the name of this icy region showcases a stunning, rarely visited wilderness, and the suffering and vision needed to climb at the bottom of the world.

Queen Maud Land

2018

The Shark's Fin poster
10.0

Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin and Renan Ozturk ascend Northern India's Meru Shark Fin, one of the last great unclimbed alpine rock walls in the world.

The Shark's Fin

2012

Reel Rock 13 poster
7.4

REEL ROCK 13 delivers jaw-dropping action, soulful journeys and rollicking humor in a brand new collection of the year's best climbing films. Hop on a wild ride to the frigid Antarctic, get the feel of the world's hardest route, explore surreal Bedouin lands and take a run at speed. Four new films feature the world's best climbers, including Adam Ondra, Madaleine Sorkin, Alex Honnold, Conrad Anker and many more.

Reel Rock 13

2018

Behind the camera

The Rescue poster
8.0

The enthralling, against-all-odds story that transfixed the world in 2018: the daring rescue of twelve boys and their coach from deep inside a flooded cave in Northern Thailand.

The Rescue

2021

The Rescue poster
8.0

The enthralling, against-all-odds story that transfixed the world in 2018: the daring rescue of twelve boys and their coach from deep inside a flooded cave in Northern Thailand.

The Rescue

2021

Free Solo poster
7.9

Follow Alex Honnold as he attempts to become the first person to ever free solo climb Yosemite's 3,000 foot high El Capitan wall. With no ropes or safety gear, this would arguably be the greatest feat in rock climbing history.

Free Solo

2018

Free Solo poster
7.9

Follow Alex Honnold as he attempts to become the first person to ever free solo climb Yosemite's 3,000 foot high El Capitan wall. With no ropes or safety gear, this would arguably be the greatest feat in rock climbing history.

Free Solo

2018

NYAD poster
7.1

Athlete Diana Nyad sets out at 60 to achieve a nearly impossible lifelong dream: to swim from Cuba to Florida across more than 100 miles of open ocean.

NYAD

2023

Love+War poster
6.8

Pulitzer Prize-winning conflict photojournalist Lynsey Addario reflects on a career working in some of the world's most dangerous war zones, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Love+War

2025

Love+War poster
6.8

Pulitzer Prize-winning conflict photojournalist Lynsey Addario reflects on a career working in some of the world's most dangerous war zones, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Love+War

2025

Endurance poster
7.1

A century after Shackleton's Endurance sank beneath the ice, explorers uncover the legendary shipwreck and an amazing tale of survival.

Endurance

2024

Endurance poster
7.1

A century after Shackleton's Endurance sank beneath the ice, explorers uncover the legendary shipwreck and an amazing tale of survival.

Endurance

2024

Wild Life poster
7.1

From Oscar-winning filmmakers Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, "Wild Life" follows conservationist Kris Tompkins on an epic, decades-spanning love story as wild as the landscapes she dedicated her life to protecting. After falling in love in mid-life, Kris and the outdoorsman and entrepreneur Doug Tompkins left behind the world of the massively successful outdoor brands they'd helped pioneer like Patagonia, The North Face, and Esprit, and turned their attention to a visionary effort to create National Parks throughout Chile and Argentina. "Wild Life" chronicles the highs and lows of their journey to effect the largest private land donation in history.

Wild Life

2023

Wild Life poster
7.1

From Oscar-winning filmmakers Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, "Wild Life" follows conservationist Kris Tompkins on an epic, decades-spanning love story as wild as the landscapes she dedicated her life to protecting. After falling in love in mid-life, Kris and the outdoorsman and entrepreneur Doug Tompkins left behind the world of the massively successful outdoor brands they'd helped pioneer like Patagonia, The North Face, and Esprit, and turned their attention to a visionary effort to create National Parks throughout Chile and Argentina. "Wild Life" chronicles the highs and lows of their journey to effect the largest private land donation in history.

Wild Life

2023

Meru poster
7.4

Meru is the electrifying story of three elite American climbers—Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin, and Renan Ozturk—bent on achieving the impossible.

Meru

2015

Meru poster
7.4

Meru is the electrifying story of three elite American climbers—Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin, and Renan Ozturk—bent on achieving the impossible.

Meru

2015

Lost in the Jungle poster
7.2

After a deadly plane crash strands four young siblings deep within the Colombian rainforest, a dramatic rescue mission unfolds, uniting Indigenous trackers and the military in a race against time. For the first time ever, this documentay offers the exclusive account of this incredible true story directly from the children themselves and the rescuers who scoured the Amazon rainforest for a grueling 40 days and nights to find them.

Lost in the Jungle

2025

Lost in the Jungle poster
7.2

After a deadly plane crash strands four young siblings deep within the Colombian rainforest, a dramatic rescue mission unfolds, uniting Indigenous trackers and the military in a race against time. For the first time ever, this documentay offers the exclusive account of this incredible true story directly from the children themselves and the rescuers who scoured the Amazon rainforest for a grueling 40 days and nights to find them.

Lost in the Jungle

2025

Return to Space poster
6.5

The inspirational rise of SpaceX as well as Elon Musk's two-decade effort to resurrect America’s space travel ambitions.

Return to Space

2022

Return to Space poster
6.5

The inspirational rise of SpaceX as well as Elon Musk's two-decade effort to resurrect America’s space travel ambitions.

Return to Space

2022

Everest: The Other Side poster
NR

An intimate portrait of two people bound by love, ambition, and the pursuit of the impossible. Elite ski mountaineers Jim Morrison and Hilaree Nelson fell deeply in love while reaching the pinnacle of their sport. Their drive sharpened into a shared dream: to climb and ski the direct North Face of Mount Everest - the most difficult and dangerous climb on the mountain and the most coveted ski line on Earth - something only a handful have ever achieved, and no one has successfully skied down.

Everest: The Other Side

2026

Everest: The Other Side poster
NR

An intimate portrait of two people bound by love, ambition, and the pursuit of the impossible. Elite ski mountaineers Jim Morrison and Hilaree Nelson fell deeply in love while reaching the pinnacle of their sport. Their drive sharpened into a shared dream: to climb and ski the direct North Face of Mount Everest - the most difficult and dangerous climb on the mountain and the most coveted ski line on Earth - something only a handful have ever achieved, and no one has successfully skied down.

Everest: The Other Side

2026

Everest: The Other Side poster
NR

An intimate portrait of two people bound by love, ambition, and the pursuit of the impossible. Elite ski mountaineers Jim Morrison and Hilaree Nelson fell deeply in love while reaching the pinnacle of their sport. Their drive sharpened into a shared dream: to climb and ski the direct North Face of Mount Everest - the most difficult and dangerous climb on the mountain and the most coveted ski line on Earth - something only a handful have ever achieved, and no one has successfully skied down.

Everest: The Other Side

2026

Bartali poster
NR

Gino Bartali became a national hero after winning the Tour de France in 1938 but whose career was put on hold for a decade following the outbreak of World War II. In 1948, ten years past his prime, he would attempt to reclaim his title despite years without competitive racing.

Bartali

Bartali poster
NR

Gino Bartali became a national hero after winning the Tour de France in 1938 but whose career was put on hold for a decade following the outbreak of World War II. In 1948, ten years past his prime, he would attempt to reclaim his title despite years without competitive racing.

Bartali

Reel Rock 7 poster
7.5

The biggest stories from the climbing world, told with humor, heart, and mind-bending action. Featuring Alex Honnold in Honnold 3.0, Chris Sharma and Adam Ondra in La Dura Dura, Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin and Renan Ozturk in Shark's Fin, The Wide Boyz, Sasha DiGiulian, Daila Ojeda and more.

Reel Rock 7

2012

What if He Falls? poster
NR

In 2017, when Alex Honnold made his stunning free-solo ascent of Yosemite's El Capitan, he was taking an unimaginable risk: nearly three thousand feet of climbing without any ropes or safety equipment. But was the climb made even riskier by the filmmakers who accompanied him?

What if He Falls?

2018