Climber interview : Adan Morales

Hi friends!!! It's time for another climber interview. This time we're hearing from climber Adan Morales of Baboon Outdoors. I found his responses to be truly heartfelt and at times brutally honest. Enjoy!

Q1: To start, a few ways you identify yourself... (some examples: name, age, pronouns, type of work you do...) But really, anything you believe is important.⁠

A1: Hi! So, my name is Adan Morales. I’m 30 years old and I don’t care for pronouns, I guess. I identify as gender-queer, but I don’t care what pronoun people use for me. All I know is that I’m an anarchist who loves the outdoors, and I like anime... I’m the Founder & CEO of Baboon Outdoors and I just try to do cool shit.⁠

Q2: How did you start climbing?⁠

A2: My cousin Alan had a crazy idea to backpack the Appalachian Trail without any experience, and I was dumb enough to join him. During our “training,” my other cousin Michael told us about climbing and how it can help us train. Climbing and backpacking are very different, but it does help tremendously when you start getting into alpine territory. Once we came back from our failed attempt of the Appalachian Trail in 2013, I picked up rock climbing again and stayed with it since. 

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Q3: What impact has climbing had on your life?⁠

A3: As cheesy as it sounds, it did leave a major impact on my life. My life is a bit chaotic and my head is usually messed up. I used to resort to drugs and violence to feel better about my insignificance but being in the outdoors gave me some piece of mind. Climbing makes me focus and allows me to take breaks to remind myself that things aren’t as bad as it could be.

Q4: What are some other things you do that you find most fulfilling?
A4: Some other things I do is watch anime, video games, trail running, mountaineering, backpacking, SUP, and some ultra-runs (only gone up to 50 miles, I need to train some more). I do want to get into ski-mountaineering, that looks sick!

Q5: If you could tell the world one thing, what would it be?
A5: Just because something works doesn’t mean it can’t be better. We should strive for improvements and improvements only occur through friction. We can improve the world by improving ourselves, but that can only happen if we truly examine our lives to see what it is that’s worth living for. “Be comfortable with being uncomfortable”