“We had that shared experience of just standing out and being the only person that was Black, that had dark skin, doing their thing in the outdoors,” Ainuu explains in a new episode of the PEOPLE Every Day podcast about diversity in outdoor sports. “It’s really powerful to be with other people that have experienced that same thing doing what we love, because we’re stronger together with those experiences. It’s just really cool to be a part of.”
The Full Circle Everest Teamwill head to Nepal in April in attempt to add their climbs to the more than 10,000 successful summits, of which only 10 summiteers are Black. For Ainuu, it’s an opportunity to enjoy climbing without question.
“Even though I’m confident in climbing and all that, it just doesn’t feel comfortable because an old white gentleman might say something or question my knowledge or experience, which happens quite often,” he tells host Janine Rubenstein. “I’ve come to realize through those experiences that having all the newest, nicest gear… people don’t even look at that, they just look straight at your skin color and then they start interrogating you.”
Manoah Ainuu/ instagram
Ainuu is hopeful his team’s story “will dispel a lot of that” because he hates seeing his friends experience discrimination while doing the thing they love. “The more of us that can come together and do stuff outside together, the better off we’ll be,” he adds.
Growing up in Spokane, Wash., with an Ethiopian mother and Los Angeles-born father, Ainuu says he got his passion for traveling from his parents.
“They would always tell us stories when we were growing up about the importance of travel and experiencing other cultures, so we always had that foundation from them,” he recalls.
Skiing and climbing were common pastimes with his family and friends from a young age: “I used to be really scared of heights, but that’s one of the cool things about climbing: you kind of have to force yourself to get past that fear. You’re putting yourself outside of your comfort zone to further increase that comfort zone.”
Because Spokane is predominantly white, Ainuu grew up as “the Black friend” in many of his circles, including the people he climbed with. Lately, he has been grateful to discover a wider circle of like-minded thrill seekers with similar backgrounds.
“I think for a lot of us at Full Circle, our place in the outdoors is usually defined as like, ‘Oh yeah, the Black climber, Black skier’,” he says. “But one of the good things about social media, it connected a lot of us.”
Though his group does have some “anxiety” over the upcoming trek, Ainuu says extensive planning has gone into it for the past year, leading up to a January trip to Nepal when the team got “on the ground and we all came together.
His wife Rachel is also a key source of support. “Fortunately, she and a lot of our other partners are going to come out with us for the first three weeks,” to hang out before the true climbing begins, he says. “We’re all really excited for that. That takes a lot of the pressure away, when your significant others can be there with you.”
Check out more episodes ofPEOPLE Every Day, airing onApple podcasts,iHeartMedia,Spotify,Stitcher, Amazon Music or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
source: people.com
