Life Resumes

Its Feb 25th today. Another darn cold and muggy day. I spent the last few days bolting a new line and Paya got a good friend to come and take pictures of some of the new stuff everyone did this winter. I also got behind the camera for the first time and it felt weird to be behind the lens for once. But heh, its how life goes.

The new route, which Martinez had started but never finished, now goes for 40m. I will have some pics of it up before my departure in a few days. I am calling it Touched By God after the Katcha trance classic track that played on repeat in my headphones while I was bolting it.

Here are a few teasers. I will try and upload more on FB today, so watch out for that.

Here is the FB TAG where you can find the pics.

This Shot: Ulric Rousseau on the FA of Dantes Inferno "Directe". 14a/b

pz

Ulric

A Star is Born

I wrote this a few days ago during a sleepless night. Hope you all enjoy.

A star is born.

This is dedicated to every boy and girl out there who lives like i do. Who has decided that they rather give everything and gain nothing, instead of growing old with everyone and everything. This is to the people out there who dedicate their lives to our sport. Who publish, who push, who bolt, who lead. This is for every boy and girl who has gotten up before the sunrise to work for no pay. Who would rather remain nameless, who would rather do things alone. Who give their time and money for no reward and no claim. Who stand on the threshold. Between the real and the fake, between reality and fantasy. On the fine line entre security and uncertainty, one foot over the status void of truth and logic, and one hand into the unknown. Between dream and wakefulness.

It’s the long days and cold nights, the warm mornings and not enough water. The slacker lifestyle, and the hard work it takes to keep living it. It’s being dirty and not wanting a shower. Its understanding how awesome hot water actually is. It’s the daunting tasks of keep your car maintained, but the Check Engine light that costs you your dinner beer. It’s climbing to much, and climbing to long. Its getting injured, and waiting for the injury to heal. It’s explaining the crux, but not giving the entire beta. It’s knowing everything, but still failing. It’s knowing nothing, and succeeding. It’s crimping, throwing, burning, hurting, breathing to hard, and not enough. It’s being out there when you know you should be elsewhere. It’s the future ahead, uncertain and bleak, so you can do, today. It’s not having anything, but having more than anyone. Its being competitive, but still cheering your enemy on. Its dreaming of tomorrow, when today is over. Thinking about yesterday, before the day is through. It's carrying a broken heart, but knowing it was not meant to be, keeping faith, even though fate has other plans.

It’s the dark night so thick against the sheer magnitude of the moon that it borders on translucent blue. It’s the majestic brilliance high in the heavens bringing out the shine of the exploding planets. It’s the air that sits tranquil, cold, bordering on freezing, the ice forming away on the ground, roofs, grass and the sands of the earth. The palm trees high up on the steep walls sheltering lizards, snails, butterflies and scorpions, keeping them safe from predators, much like our trucks keep us safe from ours, tonight.

It’s waiting for the suns return. Waiting for the earth to rotate, for the other half of the planet to go to sleep so we can wake and admire their sunset as our sunrise. Accepting the warmth of its simple yet crucial task as it undoes that very action elsewhere. It’s sleeping in fresh air, in silence and in calm. Closing our eyes hoping we do not wake before the sun is readily available. Sleeping close to our loved ones, our dogs, our pillows or the night’s new companion.

When the time comes to wake, we stretch. We yawn and moan, shriek and toss in our comfort, all so well knowing what the day will bring. Our fingertips still raw, our heads still scared, our harnesses and shoes still humid form the day before. Yet we strive, we endure, we capture and let go, we freeze in the face of blindness and as quickly, we become human again.

It’s everything and its anything to keep us from becoming one of them. One more day, just one more night, so we can postpone pushing the Wheel. It’s forgetting about Facebook and emails, texts and cell service, it’s forgetting about mom, cause mom understands.

It’s living the dream, while dreaming of what would have been. It’s that moment, the last inch and that last gasp before it all ends, to begin at square one again, tomorrow.

It’s a place where you lose yourself and you find yourself.

Where everything falls apart.

Where everything comes together.

It is growth.

So iLL LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL.

Dear MOM...

Dear Mom and Dad,

Today I got up at 5 am with the roosters. I packed my bag and carried 40 kilos of gear 2 miles into the canyon. I took off my sweatshirt and jugged up 30 meters to my high point, hauled the drill and gear off my tag line up to me me. I finished a new route ( Life After You, 45m 13 bolts), put in a sub anchor on my way down so I could "get down" and packed everything up and sorted all my gear. I carried everything back to camp and had breakfast with the Gonzalez family at 9am. I repacked my bag and went climbing with Caroline. I finished the day by bagging the 5.14a/b FA of Dante's Inferno "Direct".

PS. Send more money...

xxx

Ulric.

The Beach

Caroline is leaving soon, and my buddies are heading to the beach. I have decided to stay alone in El Salto and reflect and bolt alone, again. I have another 4 weeks until I head to the demo series on the east coast, and I plan to take full advantage of it. Being alone is almost the best way to be for me. Its funny, but alone, there are no problems. I walk when I want to, stop when its time.

The last 2 weeks have been super intense. Without going into detail, life was about to change, but all of a sudden, it was brought to a halt in midst, and now it resumes like before.

I will walk. I will continue my search, but at the same time, I wait. Patience can be very soothing. It can purge a lot of waste and debris. It draws on the time we spent, and the memories. It begins, and ends. It lives and dies. It becomes, and disappears..

Staring out into the void off my last bolt today I seemed to understand a little more about the nothingness of our lives here. The creation, the truth, the matter, the space, the time, the cause and effect. What is a coincidence for one is a revelation for another. What is found, is lost once more. It cannot want more than I can be given. I cannot force the laws of life and bend them to my will. I see that now. What will be will be. In life as in death, it is just one more day on earth.

We try to believe that we are guided, that we are on a path predestined, that we are here for a reason, but the truth is, we are the ones who ultimately decide. We are given choices, but the actions are ours and ours alone. We want to believe that something is cause for cancer, or for a broken foot, or for a great love, but what we choose to associate with that is up to us. Is it life, or a master plan, or a supreme being?

The mistakes and the choices they entail holds us true to our blood. Our blood, we are all the same. Black, brown, white or dolphin, we are all part of each other. We are no better or worse, no different than one another. In the end we all stop breathing, all stop seeing, and we all end up on the floor.

Like all things, good and bad, you have the choice to decide, ultimately, what you want. And that is what makes us human. That is what makes us love and hate. Its what makes you, part of me.

Ulric

Bad Boy...

I was thinking of mike and I came across this vid with him in it.

The Sentra

I do not remember why I called this video, The Sentra, but check out the system to allow us to eat in peace.

Sleep and Ski

This is one of the first vids I ever made for you guys. It was during my first demo/sales tour with "other" shoe company, in 2007. I think its hilarious.