Outside Magazine

In October 2019, in a world of still busy airport terminals and long security lines, North Face athlete Manoah Ainuu logged on to his computer to submit a proposal to the company for a dream trip. The climber, who is based in Bozeman, Montana, was hoping to visit Ethiopia’s Tigray region, known for dozens of mysterious Christian churches carved into sandstone cliffs and towers in likely the sixth century, some of which require 5.4 routes to reach. Ainuu, 26, was planning to put up some new routes on the walls with a trio of North Face teammates. First and foremost, they planned to climb with kids from a local nonprofit at a smaller crag near Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital. They’d also visit the town of Hayk, where Ainuu’s mother was born and his grandparents live, and which he has been to just once, when he was 13. To fund the trip, Ainuu was asking the North Face for $36,000.

To siphon that sum from the company’s annual expedition budget, his proposal would compete with as many as 200 others from a roster of superstar climbers, ultrarunners, and skiers, a lineup stacked with icons like Emily Harrington, Ashima Shiraishi, Alex Honnold, and Jimmy Chin. It’s a high bar to make the cut as one of the six to twelve expeditions that are typically funded each year. Ainuu’s proposal would have to wow some tough critics—every athlete on the team gets a vote.

The North Face made its expedition peer-review process official in 2015 and added an athlete-only website for submissions in 2018. Today Ainuu clicked around the site, typed in the name of his expedition—“Mission to the Motherland”—and then filled in the fields for its description, significance, and budget. He also noted his production partner, Sender Films, which planned to document it.