There and Back: Photographs from the Edge

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Along the way, Chin shares behind-the-scenes details about how he captured such astounding images in impossible conditions, and tells the stories of the legendary adventurers and remarkable athletes he has photographed, including Alex Honnold, the star of his Academy Award-winning documentary film Free Solo; ski mountaineer Kit DesLauriers; snowboarder Travis Rice; and mountaineers Conrad Anker and Yvon Chouinard. An indulgence I’d never forgo is dessert. I have a terrible sweet tooth. If you put warm blueberry or pecan pie with vanilla ice-cream in front of me, I’m done. And the best souvenir I’ve brought home is a photo that I took of friends skiing near the top of Everest. This was a shot that I don’t think anyone had ever snapped before and it represents the intersection of my life as a documentarian and also a climber. It’s a reminder of a very special expedition moment and one that I couldn’t have set up. The Academy Award-winning director of Free Solo and National Geographic photographer presents the New York Times Best Selling collection of his iconic adventure photography, featuring some of the greatest moments of the most accomplished climbers and outdoor athletes in the world, and including more than 200 extraordinary photographs.

His parents, both librarians, escaped China's Cultural Revolution. They had extremely high expectations for their kids: "I started playing the violin when I was three, and I swam competitively. Life was really about academics and competing every weekend. And if I got an A-minus, honestly, it would be like, 'Why wasn't that an A?' Stephen Koch had one summit left in his quest to snowboard the Seven Summits. An early pioneer of snowboard mountaineering, Stephen conceived a bold plan to snowboard Mount Everest: he’d climb and descend the direct north face, connecting the Japanese Couloir to the Hornbein Couloir. This 9,000-foot line bisects one of the biggest faces on the tallest mountain on earth. It was an audacious goal, but Stephen wanted to make it even more challenging by climbing it alpine style—in a single push, without the use of supplemental oxygen, fixed ropes, or preestablished camps. During the Communist Revolution, Jimmy Chin’s parents escaped mainland China and fled to Taiwan. Eventually, they immigrated to the flatlands of Mankato, Minnesota, where they built a life working as librarians. It was an unlikely setting to raise a world-class mountaineer. The film received the US Audience Documentary Award at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. Moreover, he produced and directed the feature-length documentary Free Solo with his wife. The film won 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. In addition, he also released the 2021 documentary, The Rescue, which chronicles the 2018 Tham Luang cave rescue. Jimmy Chin Net Worth National Geographic caught up with Chin to talk storytelling, adventure, and risk. Has becoming a father affected how you approach decision-making in the mountains?Jimmy Chin is one of the most widely traveled and experienced adventure photographers on Earth, and this collection isan absolute tour de force. I read this book in a single sitting and finished feeling inspired to take on the world.” —Alex Honnold Admittedly, one breathtaking photo of sunset over icy mountaintops does get to look much like another, but the book is really best appreciated slowly, almost one climb at a time. Notes on the expeditions are included, but some readers might have to Google a few terms. I was brought up in an immigrant family. That means you worked hard. If you’re going to bother doing something, you needed to do it really well. It was all about excellence. There weren’t any excuses. I grew up swimming competitively, studying, competing in martial arts, and playing violin. Along the way, Chin shares behind-the-scenes details about how he captured such astounding images in impossible conditions, and tells the stories of the legendary adventurers and remarkable athletes he has photographed, including Alex Honnold, the star of his Academy Award–winning documentary film Free Solo; ski mountaineer Kit DesLauriers; snowboarder Travis Rice; and mountaineers Conrad Anker and Yvon Chouinard.

These larger-than-life images, coupled with stories of outsized drive and passion, of impossible goals with life or death stakes, of partnerships forged through incredible hardship, are sure to inspire wonder and awe. I grew up as far away from the adventure world as you can get,” says Chin, 44. “I didn’t grow up climbing and skiing in Estes Park. I grew up reading.” It's all part of a life Chin could have never envisioned for himself as a kid growing up in Mankato, Minnesota. Most importantly, his success caught the attention of mountaineering legend Conrad Anker, who, in 2001, helped Chin get his first professional gig shooting a campaign for The North Face and a coveted athlete sponsorship from the brand. The most thrilling...gorgeous...and scariest climbing movie ever made" JOSEPH HOOPER, MEN’S JOURNAL

Jimmy Chin Biography

If I weren’t doing what I do, I would be a woodworker or a creative craftsperson of some kind. I love working with my hands and the satisfaction of having a finished product at the end of the day. Breathtaking. An awesome and inspiring doc. Will have viewers holding their breath and biting their nails during the spectacular climax." GARY M. KRAMER, FILM JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL

A recent “find” is a restaurant called The Old House in Kathmandu. It serves Asian fusion cuisine, and it has a nice ambience and a very cool bar. I also recently discovered The Savoy in London – I usually stay in Soho, but the views of the Thames made my Covid quarantine very manageable. If you’re looking for the best speaker recommendations, paired with a top-notch customer service experience, you’re in the right place. At AAE Speakers Bureau, we exclusively represent the interests of our clients - professional organizations, companies, universities, and associations. We intentionally do not represent the speakers we feature or book. That is so we can present our clients with the broadest and best performing set of speaker options in the market today, and we can make these recommendations without any obligation to promote a specific speaker over another. This is why when our agents suggest a speaker for your event, you can be assured that they are of the highest quality with a history of proven success with our other clients.

Jimmy Chin Bio | Wiki

Anker and Chin remain close climbing partners and friends. They recently returned from an expedition to Antarctica’s Queen Maud Land, where they climbed a new route on Ulvetanna, or the “Wolf’s Tooth.”

The Academy Award–winning director of Free Solo and National Geographic photographer presents the first collection of his iconic adventure photography, featuring some of the greatest moments of the most accomplished climbers and outdoor athletes in the world, and including more than 200 extraordinary photographs. can be booked for (private) corporate events, personal appearances, keynote speeches, or other performances.The precocious Chin, fluent in Chinese and English, started playing violin at age four. He got straight A’s through school, swam competitively, and competed in martial arts. The merits of hard work and humility were recurrent themes in the kung fu stories his father often told him. In August 2003, we recruited Kami Sherpa and Lakpa Sherpa to join us and our friend Eric Henderson to manage base camp. We were the only team on Everest. Borrowing the strategy of Jean Troillet and Erhard Loretan, who had scale the north face alpine style in 1986, Stephen and I intended to hyperacclimate to 23,000 feet, and then go for it in the small window between the monsoon and post-monsoon seasons, when the face would be caked with snow and the jet stream winds would be manageable. FREE SOLO is less about climbing than it is about living. An extraordinary gift to everyone who believes that the limit of human achievement is far from being reached." BRET STEPHENS, THE NEW YORK TIMES I thought of him every day in Antarctica,” Chin says. “My mind would drift to moments I shared with him from childhood on the approaches to the climb, while we climbed. Moments I hadn’t thought about in decades.”