Dec 24...

I've been writing again. Though not in the normal sense and in french nonetheless. Its one day to Christmas, and although I do not endorse or admire any religious holiday, it does bring to mind romantic elements of the past, and possibly the future. I miss the snow somewhat. Not enough to move to the arctic and see it year round, but there is something about walking on sturdy snow, hearing it beneath my shoes and breathing in the crisp air. It does bring back nostalgic moments.

Feel free to use anything I wrote to get laid this holiday season.

Have a good one. Merry "whatever" to all, and to all a good send next year.

( Sorry. for some reason the font function is not working. had to highlight )

Un Petit Froid. Par Ulric Rousseau

Je pense beaucoup à marcher avec elle dans la petite neige de l'après-midi, main dans la main en amoureux. Le silence de l'air froid autour de nous. La neige qui tombe sur nos épaules lentement. Me retourner ver elle. La regarder dans les yeux. Embrasser ces lèvres doucement. La tenir au chaud contre moi. Ecouter le son des soulier sur la neige fraîche sou nous pied... engourdie.

Main dans la main...les amoureux marche sous les arbre du parc. Les branches fraîchement vierges des feuilles de l'automne. Encore plusieurs d'entre elle peu être ressenties sou la neige nouvelle de novembre. Brusque. Paisible. Simple. Tous blanc au contour de noir des arbres au dessous de deux amoureux. Le canapé couvert de petit glaçons qui coule d'eau translucide sou les percé de soleil de l'ouest. Légèrement est le temps. Rien ne dérange cette peinture parfaite d'amour. Les deux aussi son parfais. Leur main entre eu, les doigt exposer au petit froid ce réchauffe ensemble. Leur bout ce touche doucement, ce frotte l'un contre l'autre. Il marche épaule coller. Tète ver l'un et l'autre. Tranquillement. A demi vitesse sou le canapé de neige glacé et le blanc froid qui étourdis leur sentiment.

Des yeux qui percent le soleil, qui fond fondre le métal, qui abaisse même le regard de vampire. Il urge une passion mais encore plus, une détermination constante et dramatique. Une dévotion toxiques d'amour et de désire qui rend son homme fou, sans pitié,  elle le dévore d'une seul bouchée,  son sang légèrement,  brutalement deviens le sien...

Une soirée passer avec toi. Une chambre tous noir enluminer par des chandelles.  Un bain chaud. Des bulles. Blanches. Une bouteille de Champagne coulent doucement sur ton corps, moi qui goute et bois tes sien, tes fesse, tes jambe, ton cou, tes lèvre, tes épaule, ton nombril. Mais main qui glisse sur toi. Dans toi. Tes yeux fermer qui vie en temps réal le rêve parfais. Un homme qui aime la femme parfaite qui fais l'amour a la femme qui aime l'homme fort qui la protège a tous moment de la noirceur et du mal. Qui dépose les fleure a ces pied, qui demande juste de lui faire plaisir...

La lumière fond leur âme ensemble. Il s'embrase longtemps. Il la regarde avec amour pur. Il la caresse. Il la prend avec ces muscles fort mais gentiment. Elle le regarde puis ce laisse prendre. Tombe dans ces bras. Presse sa tète contre lui. Son corps nue repose sur lui. Il la tien. Embrase ces partie sensible autour de son coup puis ces lèvre. Son corps commence a sué. Elle glisse contre lui. Elle ferme ces yeux...

Quand je pense a elle ces un souvenir. Même si le temps n'y est pas vraiment responsable. Juste un petit moment. Elle étais a moi pour une fraction de second. Tout a moi. Disponible. Belle. Généreuse. Attentive. Son désire ma réalité. Ces demande mes action. Elle troublait mes rêves. Elle me réveille des cauchemars puis ajuste la lumière de demain pour le jour de hier. Ces souvenir son mes réalité. Son amour pourtant caché démontre une sincérité absolue. Nous demandons du silence pour réveiller les morts avec nos cris. Nous demandons le bruit pour encourager les belle nuit de sommeille paisiblement ensemble. Seul. Personne. Le secret. Tout a nous. Rien ne peu déranger.

Ce qui m'excite ces de ne pas avoir de pouvoir. De filtrer les mensonges puis les vérité des phrase. Etre totalement pris au poignet. Elle parle puis je fonds. Elle me demande est je commande. Pourtant. L'heure  approche ou elle verra que tous sa penche a païenne la balance quand a l'amour qui séparera elle et lui par moins de un centième  de millimètre. Quand elle pourra  goûter  ce que elle désire elle sentira pour la première fois ces quoi être vivantes. Respiré. Sentir  son sang pomper  dans ces viennes. Lui il la prendra  a ce moment volatiles puis la portera dans un orgasme magnifique digne de un homme presque  parfaits...

De la...

Boreal and John Bachar

We swung by the Boreal factory today for some shoes for kids in Croatia and got a cool chance to see the factory and man, what a cool last stop in the private showroom of the owner. ( This might sound odd or cheesy ) but it was really inspiring to be in the presence of this particular pair of shoes. Man. My breath actually slowed to a gasp when I saw em. Jesus ( Boreal owner ) told us that he had boxes and boxes of used pairs from every climber who ever wore Boreal in the last 39 years including Wolfgang and Lynn Hill and the list goes on... Cannot wait to stop by next year to see the actual museum they are building.

Thanks again or all the shoes for the kids Jesus. Many smiles to come and thanks for supporting a La Sportiva athlete. Jesus, like me, knows that in these kinds of situations, loyalty is only skin deep and what matters is the end result in helping others less fortunate. Kudos man.

Off topic...

Spain

We took the day to stock up at the Mercado on food and booze... @ 2€ the bottle, why would we not spend 300€ on a grocery run. Meat, fish, cheese, pasta, veggies ect. The house is stocked and the gear is unpacked from toting 5 22kilo bags and 4 carry on through two planes, a bus, two train transfers and a rental car pick-up. After 30 hours up eva and I fell asleep like babies... tomorrow we start warming up. One week of endurance to get used to the 50m routes here and get my fingers back after 6 weeks of bolting and almost a year from hard climbing. My project is to climb as much as possible and have as much fun as I can. Anyone doing any different can suck it... LOL

Climbing Beyond Borders...

My boy Rory started this thing a few years ago and its getting pretty loud.

Check it out...

Lenny morning...

Good morning... Perfect song for a perfect start of a day...

10 days.

In 10 days, I get my first 4 month CLIMB ONLY vacation. No drill. No emails. Just a 100m rope and 5 pairs of solutions to tear up. BAM



veteranos from mugiwara on Vimeo.

Lebanon...Last call.

We, I and Eva, and recently Emlie, have been held up in Jezzine, in southern Lebanon, for about 3 weeks now.

When I got here, I was faced with 4 days of rain. Starting the engines was a little hard. I would bolt only a few hours a day. Finding the correct lines to start a wall is crucial. Those prime lines lead the future development of the wall for others.

I bolted 8,12 and 14 first. Took about 6 days in all, due to the massive cleaning these routes demand.

I had a small army of warrior cleaners come and go. Soon, with those guys hacking away, I was able to get a couple more lines up ground up.

When Eva and Emilie shoed up, they went to work on their own, alongside Nicolas, a local climber and guide. Armed with two drills for them, they put up a couple more routes while I was stuck with the dangerous end of the stick: Moving from anchor to anchor on lead with my gri gri as partner.

We where able to put up over 20 routes. Most of them ground. Most of them with massive blocs the size of Volkswagens as my enemies. Side stepping and high stepping past these beats with RB's and Mexi-Pins (TM).

All told so far, we have put in about 380 bolts. bust out the calculator... Yup. That means on average, the routes here have about 20 bolts. This was my vision. With Uber safe distances between bolts, guides, classes, beginners and self taught experts even, could enjoy safe zone climbing and learn at their rhythms...

After all this effort, its nice to the rain come down and clean the walls, freeing the dust and earth from the pockets, roofs, slabs and jugs that make up some of the features.

The wall is really cool. most routes have multiple roof systems, with big jugs and good feet to lend to easy terrain. Some lines, like Meridian, have this amazing exposure, but with bolts at every meter. The climbing has been referred to as " Mountaineering " or " Alpine " or " Yosemite " without the cost of the plane ticket and the scar of death or dismemberment.

To recacp. This is a great crag. 3 min approach. Lots of new potential for even easier climbs on the right side and a small " School " crag on the left. All anchors are chained and fully equipped for ease of lower and no twists in the rope. ( The way it should be ).

Below, you'll find a short video of the area, and the topo so far. There are a few corrections to be made, but I am in a rush. I want to bolt another line before the rain moves in.

I also need to emphasize that none of this would be possible without the huge support and love from the following people.


Marc, Chloe, Lena, Rami and Ellie @ Lebanese Climbing Association
Jano @ The North Face
Rob and Beth @ Maxim Ropes
Evertt and Jim @ La Sportiva
John @ Petzl USA
Chris, Eric, Grear, Stacey and Karl @ Climbtech
Kati and Rob @ Big Agnes
Daniel @ So iLL
Jure @ Morpho
Eva Moya Prado
Emilie Pellerin
Nicolas
Samir
Khalil and the Town of Jezzine for the Hotel and Laundry
Guy Parent and Francois Sebastien, my mentors :)
Jean @ Urock
Eddy
and all the climbers, friends, supporters, Facebook likes, blog hitters, pats on the back, keep going stories, instagram feeds, pro climbers I learned from (Lynn, Alex, Chris, Danny, Jason and the list goes on )

And really, my mom. Without whom I would not be able to wake up everyday, faced with overwhelming opposition, evil doers, negative throwbacks, rage induced defamatory emails to sponsors, and impossible tasks, jealousy and egotistical fear, and then, walk RIGHT THROUGH THEM LIKE YOU DON'T EXSIST, because, at the end of the day, the ones who support me know I always take the ethical moral high road, and leave the table scraps to those who want and war for them and the ones who do not, only make me want it more.

What happens if you tell a 4 year to not eat from the cookie jar?

Because you believe in me and my passion, is the reason I can do what I do without fear of reprisal, disgust or losing a step.

Thank you.

Bye bye.

PS. Feel free to come and bolt, guide, take pictures, film, camp, climb and enjoy this area. There are no rules and anyone and everyone is welcome. ;)


DJI00035 from Ulric Rousseau on Vimeo.

Pretty cool footage :)

INSPIRE ONE : : SPONTANEOUS INSPIRATION from Spontaneous Combustion on Vimeo.

Lebanon Week 3

Another few weeks have passed. Eva has joined me and Emelie is arriving on the 16th to join Eva, Nicolas and a slew of helpers and motivated peeps to develop a new area in the southern region of Lebanon.

The area is located a few miles from the entrance to the Magnificent town of Jezzine. The area is hidden in the valley floor, and took a few days to find.

Habbib, a speleology pro and local contractor offered to drive me around to look at cliffs as part of the mayor initiative to develop the sport in the area. Of course, I jumped in. On the second attempt, we found this great area. Its about 300 meters wide and 90 meters tall. Most routes are 35m.

Like I have stated before, I was not in Lebanon to bolt 14's ( 8c's ) but to try and help the sport grow. No better way to do that but to get down and dirty and find an area we could put in 40 or so routes of beginner and intermediate range. I have been working the wall for 10 days now. At first alone, but now, more people are showing up daily, armed with drills and hammers, eager to bolt or clean or tread trails.

My drill has been pounding the walls for 10 days now, including 4 days of rain. We have 10 routes up. Mostly lower 6 grades, and one 7c+ or 8a. That was a fluke, I wanted to go under the roof and tread right to avoid the overhang, but the rock was not solid and safe enough, so I finished the tufa line up straight through three roofs. It over hangs about 5 meters over 20. Its pretty rad.

Eva and I started a new wall yesterday and I think we can get a few lines up on this area that will be in the 5 grade which will be great practice wall.

My goal, as it has always been, is to help expand the sport. This area is for everyone. Anyone can come and learn with me, or alone. You can guide, take pictures or film and climb when you want.

If you don't have a drill, you can use mine. If you do not have bolts or hardware, you can use mine. As long as it goes up on the wall in a safe and correct manner, then everyone wins. And like I told everyone who has shown up, if they are not sure, they can ask and its my pleasure to guide you in the safe direction.


I think we will succeed. :)

Here are a few shots of my first days here and the new wall.

Small crag in Bierut. Pretty cool. Kenny and Jess playing around.

Dinner des Con... After a hard day at the new area, beer sounds pretty good to me.

Kenny, Jess and ( sorry, forgot your name ) smiling...

View from the hotel, paid for by the city, in Jezzine. BAM.

A pics sent to me in FB. In Beirut. We will surly put up a couple lines there before leaving this year. :)

My stitches before I pulled em out during my layover in Istanbul.

Bolting the second line at the new area. Ground up. BAM.

4 batteries should suffice...

Turkish Airlines were so cool to accommodate all my 150 kilos of gear on the flight, for free. Much thanks :)

Eva bolts the first line on a new part of the new area. :)

THE AREA. BAM BAM"

Where we are...

I miss my friends. I miss them immensely.

Although I have friends all over the world, and I have met thousands of people in my years on this great blue marble, I feel very alone.

I am in Lebanon today. Tomorrow, who knows, but right now, on the balcony of the hotel, I stare out into the rising sun to the east, watching it creep over the mountain side and cast light onto the valley floor. The coffee mug steams on the banister. I roll some tobacco. Its silent. In the distance the morning chants of the Koran ( not sure what the term is ) clash against church bells. A sort of a war fo sounds. Its actually quit nice. Rhythmic.

I wish all my friends were here. Jai and Marin would bake bread on the burner. Kelley would navigate to the hospital. Jimmy would chatter on about conspiracies. Mike ( RIP ) would sit there with headphones flipping his knife open and close in his black Carharts.

Eva would still be sleeping or washing dishes. Jeb would stand over the battery charger and inspect any gear that would be laying around the room. Jeff would be writing, Jim shooting everything with his camera. Paya would roll and joint and Carlos and Fer would just sit in silence watching us. Ramon would be making vegan food and sorting out the trash into categories.

I wish everyone was here with me. We could climb and have fun and smile. But we are all in other parts of the world right now, doing other things. It saddens me.

I wish we could all be together.

:)

New area and some mud

Lebanon: Week ONE.

After a few days or searching, and two tanks of gas, we finally found a perfect area to apply our project ideals. With a view of the Mediterranean sea.

The area is located down in the valley below the town of Jezzine, Lebanon. The setting is quit picturesque. Tall magical like trees hover of over small orchards of olives, lemons and grapes. Its quiet. Peaceful. Bolting here reminds me, suddenly, of what we are really doing. Opening a new door for the future generations of climbers who can tread on these walls safely and enjoy nature and the surrounding culture with aplomb.

Years ago, a La Sportiva add, featuring Kurt Smith, gave me a kick in the ass to do what I now do. It simply stated that he did not own a house, or a Porsche or any truly material goods, and that he would continue to climb and develop, even if he had to spend his last dollar on a bag of potatoes.

This is a fond memory for me. It creeps up in my consciousness sometimes, while driving mostly. I think of all the areas I have been too, everyone I have met, all the lives that have shaped mine, and all the people who have helped me become who I am. I have had some run in's for sure. Most of the time though, its a just in passing, and nothing negative really ever truly lasts... Its made to resolve into a learned moment and then fades back into its hidden cave to be swallowed.

Jezzine's new area we are bolting is just that for me today, it shows me the positive and the light, and blocks out all the black. Across the small slope in the valley, just a few 100 meters from this still unnamed crag ( Asterix & Obelix is the working title for now ), there are small isolated limestone monoliths. Imagine Easter Island or Stonehenge if you will, but set amongst a think pine forest. When  I strolled around I felt like a Druid or a wizard, harvesting herbs and spices for my potions. Some of the these little blocs can hold two to 5 routes, making them uber special for a days out with a close friend or lover, giving you privacy to climb amongst the trees all alone, together, to enjoy this magical area.

Before come to this area, which will mostly hold routes between 4a and 6b, there is a nice, hard wall, of about 40 meters, which resembles rifle or jail house. With a road going directly up the crag, where you can belay off the hood.

I cannot believe, yet again, that I am in this country. Everyone and everything about Lebanon makes me want to move here. I especially enjoy the driving. No rules applied.

Ok, Thats it for now. I am off to Jezzine, where the mayor has organized a hotel room for me during my stay, for as long as I keep bolting. Eva is joining me  not he 9th, and bring even more iron with her. In total, I think we will be able to put up about 50 new routes before we head to Spain. In total, I expect this whole area in Babu ( Jezzine ) can contain about 150+ routes. Half of which can be under 6a, which will make it a great starter area, and a great place for experienced climbers to bring newcomers or family.

In closing, I need to thank everyone who made this possible. Marc, Chole, Ellie and Lena @ LCA

, Chris, Karl, Patrick and the boys at Climbtech. Everet and Jim @ La Sportiva, Jano @ TNF, Kati and Rob @ Big Agnes, Evan @ Ibex Clothing, Dan @ So iLL, Rob and Randy@ Maxim Ropes, John Evans@ Petzl USA and especially Turkish Airlines who, at the last moment, picked up the tab on 220 kilos of gear I was travelling with. I could not do it without you guys, thank you. I am sure I am missing people, but you know who you are, and I say thank you. :)

Jezzine

Heading here to scope out and prospect tomorrow. SICK. Hope the rock is solid. If it is, new route going up tomorrow. I want to bolt that pitch beside the waterfall...Would that make the cover of rock and ice?

Kinder at it again...

Holy fucking shit...

Nina

Em Pellerin

Little vid of  a friend of mine...

Turkish Airlines

Last friday I drove to Dorval airport. After 2 months of calling and emailing every contact on web for Turkish airlines at no avail I figured why not try the actual airport peeps. So I met with the manager of Turkish airlines who gave me a direct email contact to send my request too. Cross fingers is works.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ulric Rousseau 
Date: Sun, Oct 5, 2014 at 8:50 AM
Subject: Humanitarian Mission - Climb Higher Foundation - Baggage Allowance Request
To: Confidential

Hello.

My name is Ulric Rousseau, and I would like to request FREE baggage allowance for my Turkish Airlines Flight ( Ticket # UC3FN4Z4 ) on Oct 19th 2014 from Montreal, Canada (YUL) to Beirut, Lebanon (BEY) via Istanbul, Turkey (SAW).

I have been invited by the Canadian Embassy in Beirut as well as the Lebanese Climbing Association to help children and develop the sport for Lebanon in a safe manner for everyone to use, for future generations. 

For the past 3 years, I have been trying to help kids, in less industrialized and poor countries, stay away from drugs, prostitution and crime by giving them the opportunity to discover rock climbing. 

With my sponsors ( Petzl, Climbtech, Maxim Ropes, La Sportiva, So iLL, Prana, Big Agnes, The North Face and Ibex Clothing ), I am planning to help develop the climbing areas in Northern Lebanon with the Lebanese Climbing Association, as well as working with them to get kids out climbing.

All the sponsors have given thousands of dollars generously in gear. Although this is generous, it still leaves me with a huge monetary burden which I alone bare to get this gear to kids this year.

I would like to ask for free baggage allowance. I have 8 bags of 22 kilos that need to be transported with me to Beirut ( one way ) on Oct 19th 2014. I have attached the e ticket for your ease of work. If you could help me that would be most gracious and I would be willing to use your logo on my blog and Facebook pages and mention you in the movie. My sponsors pay over 3000$ each for such visibility every year. I would offer it for free. All I ask is for my Baggage Allowance to be FREE of charge.

Attached you will find information so you can make an informed decision, including reference letters from all the sponsors, my flight E-Ticket, a copy of my passport and a PDF of our mission. 

Please take the time to look over the various links and video below and I hope you find it in your heart to help me today, so I can help struggling kids tomorrow. I hope we can work together now and in the future to come.

I cannot complete this mission without your help. I hope you can find it in your hearts to help me, help children who would otherwise have nothing to look forward too.

Yours. Sincerely,

Ulric Rousseau

https://www.facebook.com/ClimbHigherFoundation

http://ulricrousseau.blogspot.com/2013/09/climbing-gear-for-kids-update.html

http://www.sportiva.com/ambassadors/athletes/regional-climbing/ulric-rousseau

Seasons in Flight - Part ONE @ https://vimeo.com/90112616

DAMN"

Thanks to John Bulmer for this link.

Noam Chomsky...

Read it. NOW!

FEATURES » SEPTEMBER 4, 2014

The End of History?

The short, strange era of human civilization would appear to be drawing to a close.

BY NOAM CHOMSKY

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Print

The likely end of the era of civilization is foreshadowed in a new draft report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the generally conservative monitor of what is happening to the physical world.

It is not pleasant to contemplate the thoughts that must be passing through the mind of the Owl of Minerva as the dusk falls and she undertakes the task of interpreting the era of human civilization, which may now be approaching its inglorious end.

The era opened almost 10,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent, stretching from the lands of the Tigris and Euphrates, through Phoenicia on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean to the Nile Valley, and from there to Greece and beyond. What is happening in this region provides painful lessons on the depths to which the species can descend.

The land of the Tigris and Euphrates has been the scene of unspeakable horrors in recent years. The George W. Bush-Tony Blair aggression in 2003, which many Iraqis compared to the Mongol invasions of the 13th century, was yet another lethal blow. It destroyed much of what survived the Bill Clinton-driven U.N. sanctions on Iraq, condemned as “genocidal” by the distinguished diplomats Denis Halliday and Hans von Sponeck, who administered them before resigning in protest. Halliday and von Sponeck's devastating reports received the usual treatment accorded to unwanted facts.

One dreadful consequence of the U.S.-U.K. invasion is depicted in a New York Times “visual guide to the crisis in Iraq and Syria”: the radical change of Baghdad from mixed neighborhoods in 2003 to today's sectarian enclaves trapped in bitter hatred. The conflicts ignited by the invasion have spread beyond and are now tearing the entire region to shreds.

Much of the Tigris-Euphrates area is in the hands of ISIS and its self-proclaimed Islamic State, a grim caricature of the extremist form of radical Islam that has its home in Saudi Arabia. Patrick Cockburn, a Middle East correspondent for The Independent and one of the best-informed analysts of ISIS, describes it as “a very horrible, in many ways fascist organization, very sectarian, kills anybody who doesn't believe in their particular rigorous brand of Islam.”

Cockburn also points out the contradiction in the Western reaction to the emergence of ISIS: efforts to stem its advance in Iraq along with others to undermine the group's major opponent in Syria, the brutal Bashar Assad regime. Meanwhile a major barrier to the spread of the ISIS plague to Lebanon is Hezbollah, a hated enemy of the U.S. and its Israeli ally. And to complicate the situation further, the U.S. and Iran now share a justified concern about the rise of the Islamic State, as do others in this highly conflicted region.

Egypt has plunged into some of its darkest days under a military dictatorship that continues to receive U.S. support. Egypt's fate was not written in the stars. For centuries, alternative paths have been quite feasible, and not infrequently, a heavy imperial hand has barred the way.

After the renewed horrors of the past few weeks it should be unnecessary to comment on what emanates from Jerusalem, in remote history considered a moral center.

Eighty years ago, Martin Heidegger extolled Nazi Germany as providing the best hope for rescuing the glorious civilization of the Greeks from the barbarians of the East and West. Today, German bankers are crushing Greece under an economic regime designed to maintain their wealth and power.

The likely end of the era of civilization is foreshadowed in a new draft report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the generally conservative monitor of what is happening to the physical world.

The report concludes that increasing greenhouse gas emissions risk “severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems” over the coming decades. The world is nearing the temperature when loss of the vast ice sheet over Greenland will be unstoppable. Along with melting Antarctic ice, that could raise sea levels to inundate major cities as well as coastal plains.

The era of civilization coincides closely with the geological epoch of the Holocene, beginning over 11,000 years ago. The previous Pleistocene epoch lasted 2.5 million years. Scientists now suggest that a new epoch began about 250 years ago, the Anthropocene, the period when human activity has had a dramatic impact on the physical world. The rate of change of geological epochs is hard to ignore.

One index of human impact is the extinction of species, now estimated to be at about the same rate as it was 65 million years ago when an asteroid hit the Earth. That is the presumed cause for the ending of the age of the dinosaurs, which opened the way for small mammals to proliferate, and ultimately modern humans. Today, it is humans who are the asteroid, condemning much of life to extinction.

The IPCC report reaffirms that the “vast majority” of known fuel reserves must be left in the ground to avert intolerable risks to future generations. Meanwhile the major energy corporations make no secret of their goal of exploiting these reserves and discovering new ones.

A day before its summary of the IPCC conclusions, The New York Times reported that huge Midwestern grain stocks are rotting so that the products of the North Dakota oil boom can be shipped by rail to Asia and Europe.

One of the most feared consequences of anthropogenic global warming is the thawing of permafrost regions. A study inScience magazine warns that “even slightly warmer temperatures [less than anticipated in coming years] could start melting permafrost, which in turn threatens to trigger the release of huge amounts of greenhouse gases trapped in ice,” with possible “fatal consequences” for the global climate.

Arundhati Roy suggests that the “most appropriate metaphor for the insanity of our times” is the Siachen Glacier, where Indian and Pakistani soldiers have killed each other on the highest battlefield in the world. The glacier is now melting and revealing “thousands of empty artillery shells, empty fuel drums, ice axes, old boots, tents and every other kind of waste that thousands of warring human beings generate” in meaningless conflict. And as the glaciers melt, India and Pakistan face indescribable disaster.

Sad species. Poor Owl.

NOAM CHOMSKY

Noam Chomsky is Institute Professor & Professor of Linguistics (Emeritus) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the author of dozens of books on U.S. foreign policy. He writes a monthly column for The New York Times News Service/Syndicate.

Movie

Nice

Superman

I have been at the outer for hours. Looking for tracks for the next project. Youtube and Facebook.

Klemen strikes again. Check out his post.

Leo

I have posted many things in the past years. Some funny. Some rude. Some exciting and some stupid. Every time, I do it because I want to.

I wish, I did not have to post this today. It breaks my heart that even Leo's voice, will be taken with a grain of salt and ignored. No one man, no matter his name or position, can change what we are today, and where we will be tomorrow. I have no faith in my or your country and even less hope from governments around the world who see our climate as a hurdle and not a bridge. A gap between them and money, and not the hidden crevasse that it truly is.

:(

A little update

Got to take a few shots with the rig ( d7100 ). Still learning. I was stuck with a 10-24mm. Wish I had a change of lens for this shot. If you miss me on Instagram, here are a few hits.

Two sunday songs to skip church

Save link as...
I would rather be elsewhere today. But I am here. So might as well enjoy it. :)

Arcade Fire - Wake up
Download

Stay Alive - Jose Gonzalez
Download

Ghosts Of Paraguay - Hadron [Free Download]

I am chasing music every night. I spend hours going through youtube and sound cloud looking for kick ass songs from unknown artists. After the 5000$ per track demands of the big boys from the last video, I am going gorilla and using tracks that are license free for the upcoming Lebanon and Spain videos. Here is one really good atmospheric track.

5:02
11.54 mb

Ghosts Of Paraguay - Hadron mp3

Download

Climb Higher Foundation update!

Peeps. I am so fucking happy.

Big Agnes is shipping out about 100 lbs of clothing for kids. John @ Petzl has shipped out 17 S and XS harnesses for our trip too. Jesus @ Boreal has committed 20 pairs of shoes and shipping them today to me for pre packing for Lebanon. Climbtech gave me 500 hangers and loads of anchors for the trip, so I can put up as many as 50 new routes of moderate grades with safe anchors.

Maxim Ropes is outfitting me with 2 x 100m / 2 x 80m 9.1 Airliners and 3 x Pinnacle Blue 70m for Bolting and a couple spools to leave for the clubs there so they can take kids out safely. :)

Malek @ The Boiler Room is always keen on helping, and I am sure he will not let me down this year :)

JM @ Allez-Up is king. Always ready to help.

I have spent the last week negotiating with Turkish Airlines and they have finally agreed to allow me to travel ( I bought the ticket ) with 5 x 30 kilo bags for free so I can bring all the gear at no charge. So Psyched.

Ibex Clothing is outfitting me for the trip too, cannot discount those guys. Really cool wool underwear. SOOOOOO SOFT" :)

La Sportiva is sending me 20 t's and sweat shirts in small sizes. So fucking cool.

Boreal is supplying us with Shoes, about 20 pairs. Down side, I will only have em after my trip to Leb. But I will make it work :) Thanks so much.

I will make sure to show you all the gear that is sent my way before I leave for Beirut. A video would be nice,  maybe I will do that :) Stay tuned

If you have gear or want your company to support this, don't hesitate to contact me anytime.

I really, really, could not do this with the support of these brave and solid companies. So please, next time you shop, make sure to support those who support our sport, and our way of life and focus. What goes around, come around. Cheers peeps.

I love the green, Sparks doesn't it? LOL :) xxx

Most of you did not know this but...

Prana

Klemen

My boy klemen...Cannot believe I will be climbing and bolting with this machine this winter in Spain. Thank you boys.

Bala Bala! [teaser] from Stripe Visuals on Vimeo.

Pixs from the OR...