Jimmy Chin's Photographs of Koch Snowboarding Everest

You Are Here:

Home >> Behind the Fall Line

Today's Question
What should you do if you run into a cougar in the backcountry? answer

What is the number one backcountry skill people should learn? answer

Today's Question
What are the five best environmental movies of all time? answer

What are the greenest colleges? answer

What kind of dog will make me look manlier? answer
Is there a sport that safely combines my twin passions for guns and kayaks? answer
How come most of the world's cultures enjoy eating goat, but Americans don't? answer

Online Favorites

Special Issues

Photo Galleries

Outside Online

Page:

Behind the Fall Line

By Grayson Schaffer


	(Jimmy Chin)

Outside's March 2004 article "Facing the Fall Line" chronicles big-mountain snowboarder Steven Koch's quest to become the first to summit Everest and then set a never-before-attempted line down its treacherous North Face. Accompanying Koch on the Everest expedition was mountaineer-photographer Jimmy Chin, who captured the powerful images that accompanied the article.

Photo Gallery

See a full-size gallery of Chin's Everest photos here.

As the story explains, falling debris and dangerous snow conditions forced the expedition to call it quits, but the following is another story—the one that lives behind each image. Consider the photo above: Leading away from the relative safety of the ridge and out across a sun-weakened avalanche field are Chin's barely discernable boot tracks. He hiked over Everest's Japanese Couloir for this shot, putting himself in danger in order to frame Koch against the steep ridgeline. "At that point I shouldn't have really been screwing around," Chin says, "but I knew I wanted a shot of him on the ridge, so I traversed way out left. I was really cranking because I knew we didn't have much time."

This is the life of an expedition photographer—taking unseen risks in order to bring the rest of us vicariously along for the ride. In fact, according to Chin, his success as a photographer is due largely to his mountaineering experience, since expeditions prefer to work with someone who won't become a liability in tough climbing situations. In many cases Chin only has a split second to snap a shot before the opportunity is gone.

Although Chin is considered one of the best expedition photographers working today, he's far too modest to admit it: "I'm really not technically a very good photographer at all," he says. "I think most people would be mortified—most amateur photographers know more than I ever will, mostly because I don't have time to sit down and read the books."

Page:

•	Subscribe to Outside and get a FREE Gift!

•	Give the gift of Outside Magazine!

•	Subscribe to Outside Online's free weekly e-mail newsletter featuring gear reviews, fitness advice, galleries, podcasts, and more.