Minnesota mountain climber reaches new heights in documentary 'Meru'

Growing up in the flatlands of Mankato, Jimmy Chin never dreamed he'd become a mountain climber — until a trip with his family to Glacier National Park filled his head with grand ideas.

"I remember having a really deep reaction to the mountains, being completely fascinated and overwhelmed with this landscape," he said. "I also read adventure stories voraciously and they struck a chord."

Chin, 41, went on to combine his two passions — climbing and photography — as a career. For the last 20 years, he has shot photos and video for National Geographic and made his own films, culminating in "Meru," which opens Friday at the Lagoon.

It tells the story of his most daring accomplishment: scaling the toughest peak in the Himalayas, the Shark's Fin on Mount Meru, with two other men. So named because it curves under at the tip, this outgrowth 21,000 feet above the Ganges River in northern India requires climbers to face the trickiest, slowest, most dangerous leg of their journey at the end.

It's also what Chin calls the "anti-Everest," because there are no large groups, no Sherpas, just a small band of climbers carrying everything they need for eight days on their backs.

How do you shoot film-quality footage in subzero temperatures, with no way to recharge batteries or download backup, while making the most difficult climb of your life?

"Very thoughtfully," Chin said.

A primary motivation for making "Meru" was to show the importance of trust and mutual decisionmaking between climbing partners, he said.

"The mainstream audience has a certain picture of what climbing is all about: man conquering mountain. But you can't conquer a mountain, though it may conquer you. A lot of why I climb is for the friendship, the loyalty and trust, the shared experience of being in that moment."

At one point in the Meru expedition, Chin gets caught in an avalanche that takes him hurtling downward, leaving him buried chest-high. Yet he keeps going.

"Climbing is my art, I get so much joy and gratification from it," he said. "To leave that behind is unthinkable. How do people get back in a car after a horrible accident? But it's different in the sense that people aren't passionate about driving the way I am about climbing."

That urge to pursue ever more difficult climbs is something most of us have trouble understanding, and might find foolhardy. Chin takes an opposite view.

"People say, 'Are you insane?' But the most successful climbers are the most calculating, with the most refined sense of risk. They're hyper-conscious of safety. They're the least insane people I know."

Kristin Tillotson • 612-673-7046