There and Back

Jimmy Chin is a mountaineer who also happens to be a filmmaker and a National Geographic photographer, and this book is the first to gather his adventure photography in one place. Drawn from twenty years of work, it presents more than 200 images made on expeditions across all seven continents, in places and conditions where most photographers could not follow.

The locations are as varied as they are remote. Chin documents a ski descent of Mount Everest, an unsupported trek on foot across Tibet's Chang Tang Plateau, and first ascents in Chad's Ennedi Desert and in Antarctica's Queen Maud Land. Many of the pictures were taken in situations where a single mistake could have been fatal, and he explains how he got the shots when the weather, terrain and risk were working against him.

The photographs are paired with the stories of the people in front of his lens. Among them are Alex Honnold, who starred in Chin's Academy Award-winning documentary Free Solo, ski mountaineer Kit DesLauriers, snowboarder Travis Rice, and climbers Conrad Anker and Yvon Chouinard. Their accounts cover ambitious goals with life-or-death stakes, relentless drive, and partnerships tested by hardship.

For anyone drawn to climbing, expedition travel or extreme sport, this is both a large-scale visual record and a look at the bond between the people who attempt these feats and the one who goes along to capture them.