Climbing wasn’t the obvious path for 25-year-old Manoah Ainuu. Born in Compton, California to first-generation immigrants from Samoa and Ethiopia, Manoah’s childhood was surrounded by concrete and congested freeways.

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Manoah met future TNF teammate Conrad Anker at Bozeman’s Spire climbing gym. “I recognized a gentle soul, a happy person and someone dedicated to the craft of climbing,” says Conrad. The two climbed together and Conrad talked Manoah, still a die-hard skier, into trying ice climbing. 

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Manoah has climbed routes like The Rostrum and Lurking Fear in Yosemite, Liberty Ridge on Mt. Rainier and the Regular Northwest Face of Half Dome (the first Grade VI climb in the U.S.). What he loves most is introducing people to the sport. Manoah leads a climbing clinic with kids in Atlanta and Memphis