Manoah Ainuu is a professional ice climber who goes by the self-ascribed title "the dreaded climber". Climbing wasn’t the obvious path for Ainuu. Born in Compton, California to first-generation immigrants from Samoa and Ethiopia, Ainuu's childhood was surrounded by concrete and congested freeways. Now, his everyday views include vertical blue ice, pocketed limestone crags and the high peaks of six mountain ranges in a 1.8-million-acre forest. At a young age Ainuu fell in love with skiing. Ainuu's parents recognized the positive influence of the outdoors and the need for a better education, and moved a nine-year-old Ainuu and his sister from Los Angeles to Spokane, Washington. He skied and dabbled in ice climbing, but Montana State University is where he truly dedicated himself to the sport. Fast forward five years, and he earned a spot on The North Face’s team of elite climbers, taking on daring expeditions in big mountains around the world.

Ice climbing is an emotional and mental activity as well as a physical one. Ainuu has climbed the routes in Hyalite Canyon, The Rostrum and Lurking Fear in Yosemite, Liberty Ridge on Mount Rainier and the Regular Northwest Face of Half Dome (the first Grade VI climb in the U.S.). As much as he loves pushing his limits in remote, demanding locales, Ainuu is dedicated to improving representation in climbing by introducing more people to the sport. He has led a climbing clinic with kids in Atlanta and Memphis and invited urban climbers to Bozeman, Mont. He teamed up with The North Face to build free climbing walls in parks around the country, starting in neighborhoods where kids face the highest barriers to the outdoors. They debuted climbing walls at Denver’s Montbello Open Space and Chicago’s Palmisano Park. Ainuu was a part of the documentary film Black Ice where he and a crew of climbers from Memphis Rox, a not-for-profit climbing gym in South Memphis, U.S., traverse the icy cliffs in Montana, U.S. to showcase what can be accomplished when economic barriers are removed. He plans to continue the cycle of mentorship and make climbing more accessible to underrepresented communities.

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