‘A thin line between badass and dumbass': How a mountain athlete stays alive

The Age

29-05-2025

Each week, Benjamin Law asks public figures to discuss the subjects we're told to keep private by getting them to roll a die. The numbers they land on are the topics they're given. This weeks he speaks to Jimmy Chin. The Oscar-winning filmmaker, athlete, photographer and author, 51, made the first US ski descent from the summit of Mount Everest in 2006. His book is There and Back. His films include Free Solo and Nyad.
RELIGION
Your parents are Chinese immigrants. Were you raised with religious beliefs or spiritual systems? No, not outside some Chinese traditional superstitions and beliefs. My parents sent me to a Catholic school – what they considered to be the best private school in the small town [Mankato, Minnesota] where I grew up. In college, I did a deep dive into Eastern religion and philosophy – particularly Buddhism and Taoism. I have a loose association with Buddhism, but I'm not a practising Buddhist.
Is there a word that feels right for you nowadays? Agnostic? Atheist? Spiritual? Spiritual. I have a lot of spiritual experiences in the wildest places on the planet.
You exude confidence. Do you ever doubt yourself? I often feel doubt about something, and I'm scared to do it, then I find I'm on the right path. My life has been fraught with doubt: doubt about the career that I've pursued; doubt about climbing another hundred metres up this giant mountain; doubt that we're going to make it down alive. People think, 'Oh, he's totally self-assured,' but there's a lot of risk in my line of work and you learn to kind of overcome the doubt. That's courage, I think. When people commit to a big dream, that's courage. There's nothing more vulnerable than having a big dream and then pursuing it.
BODIES
You ski, swim, climb and trek. Were you always this physically capable? I grew up swimming competitively. Swimming is one of those things where you really learn about your physical capacity. Swimming three hours in the morning, and three hours in the evening – that's six hours a day where you're constantly pushing yourself. Even a day off can put you back several days. So you really get to know your body and its limits. I also studied martial arts from about five or six and had my black belt in taekwondo by the time I was 12. You understand the discipline it requires to perform at an elite level from a very young age. So I had a really good physical and mental baseline to pursue any sport. That's not to say that I was talented in anything, but I understood what it took to become good at something.
What's the most intense thing that you've physically had to endure? There's been a lot. Everything from skiing in the Tetons [in Wyoming, America] and rock-climbing in Maro [in Spain] to climbing and skiing on Mount Everest and climbing a new route in Antarctica.