Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, left, and Mankato-born Jimmy Chin took home an Oscar for their documentary, "Free Solo." (Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
Mankato-born climber and filmmaker Jimmy Chin has skied down Everest. But on Sunday, he climbed to the top of the Oscar mountain.
Chin won the documentary feature prize for "Free Solo" with his co-director and wife Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi. Their film chronicles a climber's ascent, without ropes, of the nearly 3,000-foot vertical El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park.
Chin attended Shattuck-St. Mary's in Faribault and graduated from Carleton College before striking out on an unusual career that combines dual passions of mountaineering and photography.
And he's not the first Carleton grad to win an Oscar, either. Chin joins Barrie M. Osborne, who won in 2004 for co-producing best picture "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings."