Since 2017, Memphis Rox, “a community center disguised as a climbing gym,” has brought the camaraderie of climbing and its generative sense of personal accomplishment to a Memphis inner-city neighborhood. In the winter of 2020, legendary climber Conrad Anker invited a crew from Memphis Rox to tackle ice climbing outside Bozeman, Montana. For some of the Black climbers, including filmmaker Malik Martin, the expedition was their first trip outside Memphis. “Montana is so white, it makes your eyes hurt,” one of them observes. The restorative values of outdoor recreation have never been so needed as they are today — a subject Black Ice addresses head on.

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