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There aren’t many mountaineers where Malik Martin grew up in South Memphis. His parents were drug addicts, “victims of the crack epidemic,” as he puts it. He was adopted at age 2.

A cousin was killed at 18. Just before he left Tennessee and relocated to Denver, his truck was stolen and his ex-girlfriend’s mother was killed in a carjacking. “Where I’m from, there are no rock climbers,” said Martin, a professional mountaineer, filmmaker and storyteller who moved to Denver in December of 2022.



“I was the first ice climber from my ‘hood. I’m the first big-mountain climber from my ‘hood.” Martin, one of the outdoor industry personalities who will play important roles at the inaugural Outside Festival next weekend at Civic Center park, was exposed to indoor climbing by chance in Memphis.

He wants to help more people of color get that chance. “I can’t imagine my life without being able to go to Chautauqua and hike,” said Martin, who lives in Capitol Hill. “If I feel bad, I drive to Winter Park.

Movement is my medicine, and I need to be able to recreate. It is fun, but that’s not why I’m doing it. I’m doing it for healing.

I’m doing it to feel alive again. I’m doing it to reignite my passions.” Martin’s climbing credentials include the Grand Teton in Wyoming, one of the classic gems of American mountaineering.

He hosts a show for OutsideTV called . His movie credits include , which follows a group of aspiring ice climbers from the Memphis.

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