How To Film A MountaineerWho Aspires ToExtremes

Colorado-based climber, mountaineer, skier and photographer Jimmy Chin can now add the title “Academy Award-winning film director” to his already-prestigious resume and ever-growing list of accomplishments.

That’s because when Chin, along with his wife, co-director/producer Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, and an elite high-angle team descended into Yosemite Valley, they were ready to document Alex Honnold’s ropeless attempt to scale El Capitan in the National Geographic film “Free Solo,” which won this year’s Oscar for Best Documentary Feature.

Chin is no stranger to acrophobic experiences, having done everything from climbing and skiing Mt. Everest from the summit to making first ascents on big walls and staggering mountain towers in the Karakoram Mountains of Pakistan and the Garhwal Himalayas of Northern India. Chin will be the first to acknowledge that Honnold’s achievement—of scaling “El Cap” without a rope—puts him in a different class.

But in terms of filmmaking, Chin is remarkable in his own right. For instance, when he began