Jimmy Chin Joins COROS as Global Ambassador

“What COROS and I are exploring is really the same question: What does it mean to push beyond barriers that once felt impossible?”

High on Everest’s north face, the landscape opens in every direction. Ridges unspool into Tibet. Slopes fall away for thousands of feet.

Here is the crucible of adventure. A mountain range that has drawn people for generations, not just to stand on top of the world, but to test themselves against something that doesn’t yield.

For legendary mountain athlete and new COROS Brand Ambassador Jimmy Chin, however, the scale can collapse in an instant:

“It’s just the three feet in front of you. And you have to make a decision.”

Jimmy was out here with COROS in April, returning to the mountains to take stock after a high-octane trip in October 2025, when he had climbed the Hornbein Couloir on Everest’s north face, more than 20 years after he had first attempted the mountain, turning back at 7,000 metres.

Out here, decisions like these carry weight. Push too hard, and the margin disappears. Turn back, and the story can be written another day – or two decades later, in this case.

“There’s always a point where instinct takes over. It’s built on every failure, every close call, every expedition you’ve ever been on,” he says.

“You learn to separate the actual risk from the perceived risk. Strip away the emotion and the ego, and you’re really asking yourself clearly – what am I willing to give? Is this worth it? Those are the moments that define everything for me.”

Jimmy grew up in a small town near Minnesota, the son of Chinese immigrants who worked as librarians. His career prospects initially appeared limited to the world right in front of him, but he found his future through imagination.

“I remember reading the Hobbit as a kid and being captivated by the idea of going on a wild adventure, doing things you never thought were imaginable,” he says.

“I started climbing and something just clicked. I found myself on the big walls of Yosemite, surrounded by raw beauty. And I experienced this sense of awe and a sharpness to life I found nowhere else. Climbing really opened my eyes to my own possibilities. I guess that’s what you’d call self-discovery. I’m still chasing that feeling today.”

Jimmy's success hasn't happened overnight. The bedrock of his ambition is the painstaking work he undertakes before any adventure starts:

“People see the summit photos and the big moments, but the craft of what I do is really about preparation,” he says.

“Preparation creates the conditions for everything. It’s what allows you to be present and trust yourself when it matters most. You’re ready when there’s nothing left to take away.”

By the time Jimmy steps onto a mountain, he’s already climbed it a hundred times in his head. He has gamed out every scenario, from the weather turning to someone getting hurt or equipment failing. He knows the data, and has it all at his fingertips – or on his COROS watch. That’s what gives him the freedom to be present when it counts.

“I’ve learned that confidence isn’t something you just have – it’s something you earn through preparation. Every rep, every route you study, every conversation with your partner about what could go wrong. That’s what allows you to make clear decisions when the stakes are the highest. Preparation is how you turn fear into focus.”

When Jimmy and his team made the decision to push on and summit Everest this October, they were balancing the infinite calculus of high-altitude decision-making against the backdrop of learned experience and data.

The desire to keep chasing ‘that feeling’ sat under the cloud of a dangerous route that had taken multiple lives and hadn’t been climbed in more than 30 years.

The Hornbein Couloir sits on the north face — the opposite side of the mountain from the crowded Southeast Ridge routes most people picture when they think of Everest. The beauty of this route is unmatched, but equally it is the danger it presents.

At nearly 29,000 feet, deep in what climbers call the Death Zone, the couloir drops almost vertically in places. Of all the attempts across history, only once had a team made it through without losing someone. Among the most elite mountaineers in the world, this was the Holy Grail — and Jimmy and his partner Jim Morrison had even more plans for the trip back down.

To help him focus on making the right decisions, Jimmy now goes into these big expeditions wearing the COROS APEX 4. Built to deliver razor-sharp accuracy and rock-solid durability in the most extreme and unpredictable places, it gives Jimmy exactly the data he needs when he needs it.

“At this point in my career, the tools I rely on have to be as serious as the objectives. COROS makes watches built by people who actually get out there and test them in the world’s harshest environments. I trust COROS watches for the same reason any serious mountain athlete would. The battery life is incredible. The GPS and navigation are dialed for mountain terrain.”

Back on Everest, the push to the top was successful. It was a beautiful day to be on top of the world. But they weren’t finished there.

After summiting, Jimmy's expedition partner Jim Morrison then became the first person to successfully ski the Super Direct route on the north face. 9,000 vertical feet from the summit, in a no-fall zone where a single mistake means no second chance. Two previous attempts had ended in death.

Many in the mountaineering world consider the greatest combination of climbing and ski mountaineering ever achieved – and Jimmy captured it all in glorious technicolour, with the images being seen around the world.

He sees the achievements he captures through a broader lens, and his instinct for finding great stories has led to widespread acclaim and awards beyond the mountaineering and climbing communities.

“On the surface, my films might look like they’re about climbing the world’s highest peak or free soloing a 3,000 foot wall. But at the core, they’re about love, loss, friendship, perseverance, and facing your fears” he says.

“They’re themes that I think resonate universally, regardless of who you are or where you come from. Storytelling is often how I process the experiences that I have. It’s how I make sense of the paradox of what I do – these pursuits that give so much life, yet take life away.”

For Jimmy, pride doesn’t come from being the first person to climb a big mountain, or for winning an Oscar (which he did for Free Solo, in 2019), it comes from the moments that nobody sees. The relationships with climbing partners that become family. The trust built over years of putting life in each other’s hands.

Looking back on the Everest ascent, Jimmy is clear-eyed about how the human experience outweighed everything else:

“What made that meaningful wasn’t just the achievement – it was the deep trust between myself and my climbing partners. That’s what I carry with me.”

These high mountains around Everest exert a pull that’s hard to shake – once you’ve touched the limits, you’re drawn back again and again. So Jimmy was back again in April this year with COROS, this time to enjoy spending time in the area a little more than his high-stakes summit climb and ski trip.

He couldn’t help but consider what comes next. Athletes that push boundaries like Jimmy are always searching, no matter how far they’ve come:

“Every time I reach a goal, I realize there are even farther places waiting. That’s what keeps me going. The understanding that there’s more of my story to live,” he says.

“People often ask me, what’s the favorite photo I’ve ever taken? My answer is always the same. It’s the next one.”