Jimmy Chin is an Academy Award-winning filmmaker, National Geographic photographer, New York Times bestselling author, and one of the world’s most accomplished professional climbers and skiers. He has spent more than two decades pursuing and documenting extraordinary human achievement in the harshest environments on earth.
As an athlete, Chin has scaled unclimbed peaks in the Himalayas, skied from the summit of Mount Everest, and led expeditions across all seven continents. In 2011, he, Conrad Anker, and Renan Ozturk became the first to conquer the infamous Shark’s Fin on Meru Peak. An ascent so daunting it had repelled the world’s best climbers for decades but Chin’s exploits are not without peril. He has survived avalanches and life-threatening falls, experiences that sharpen his reflections on decision-making under extreme uncertainty.
Jimmy Chin’s photography has been featured in National Geographic, The New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, and Outside. In 2019, his peers awarded him the National Geographic Photographer’s Photographer Award. His book There and Back became an instant bestseller, offering a rare glimpse into both the physical and mental landscapes of exploration.
Together with his wife and creative partner Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Chin has co-directed films that have redefined documentary cinema. Meru won Sundance’s Audience Award; Free Solo, the story of Alex Honnold’s ropeless climb of El Capitan, won the Academy Award for Best Documentary and became the highest-grossing climbing film in history; and The Rescue, about the Thai cave mission, was hailed as one of the most riveting documentaries of recent years. Their work extends beyond the mountains to stories of resilience and innovation, from Ernest Shackleton (Endurance) to space exploration (Return to Space) and long-distance swimming (Nyad).
As a speaker, Jimmy Chin delivers lessons in leadership in high-stakes environments, the discipline of preparation, and the creativity required to solve problems when failure is not an option. He draws connections between the risks of the mountains and the challenges of business, offering audiences a rare combination of gripping storytelling and practical insight.
