Climbing gear for Kids UPDATE

Its been a long and arduous task, running ( flying, driving, hitchhiking, walking ect... ) around the planet over the past few weeks. When I put the foundation together I had no idea how time consuming and involved it would be. Coordinating and scheduling, calling, emails, faxes, immigrations, borders, fees and taxes, lying and cheating, promises and keeping them. All for the glorious end of making a few kids smile and keeping up my end of the bargain to my so generous sponsors and contributors. Before you start looking over the pictures and reading the comments, I would really like you to take a few minutes and check out the various websites and Fb pages of the

people, companies and well-doers who made this possible. Yes, I toted the bags, but I would not have any bags to tote were it not for these many amazing people.

First off, My mom . Who's tireless efforts in coordinating funds from better off people saved me many a sleepless nights and calls from creditors in the future :)

Second, La Sportiva, Prana, So iLL and Maxim who's strict code of conduct and work ethic got me the gear I asked for in time and on spec.

Many "little people" contributed bug as well. Boiler room sent me the most gear of all, including over 40 gri gri's and helmets, shoes and all pack-packs including new shoes from the retail store.

Here is a list of the what peeps gave.

Maxim : 4 x 60m equinox and 2 x 200m spools of gym rope for the tower in Beograd, Serbia
La Sportiva : 20 pairs of new shoes, half of which from LS athletes
So iLL : 10 x prescripstion chalk containers, msgenger bags, chalk bags and swag
Prana : 10 t-shirts, pants, sweaters, 20 chalk bags, 20 hats and beanies and more swag
Caroline Paradis and Cara Brock sent me a box of shoes from the crews in Alberta
Connor Watson set up a box at GGR and collected about 20 pairs of shoes.
Malek @ The Boiler Room set us up with lots of security items that were well needed. Gri Gri's and helmets for the most part and shoes for the kids.
Ken and Petra @ Vertical Reality in Ottawa... Gave so much. thank you.

Evolv and Petzl boxes did not make it in time for my departure, but rest assured, the gear will be first to go on the next journey. Allez Up gear was to much and also will be added to the next flight plan. Thank you.

So here you go, a series of pics from the road, and beyond. Enjoy.

Chillin at Sumsko's house. Updating the medias and keeping up with the GF xxxx...

If anyone knows a modelling agency, Mulitan's face should be the new face of CK yo. He also happens to be the recipient of the new pair of jeans and t shirt from Prana. Well deserved.

Jelena was asking for her own harness for over a year, since my last visit to Beo actually. I gave her mine. So iLL t shirt from my own stash too...

After a 26h travel day across the atlantic and multiple countries, i hit the road to reunite with my perfect GF only to have blockers one after the other. This first one, pulling women out of a burning car, was about 45min into the the journey. Thank god for my Boulder X's, else my feet would also be covered in blood, like my knees and forearms. More to come...

Packing for the allotted 105 kg from Swiss Air to Beograd. About 30 kilos of bolting gear including my trusty Hilti, and about 60 kilos of gear for kids. After it was all said and done, I could only leave with the clothes on my back + a few spare socks in my camera bag.

The first Jelen in Beo. Felt nice to drink a beer at 5am EST in Europe without feeling guilty.

After a day of craging in Slovenia, we hit a small trattoria in Italy outside Trieste. Enna, Goran and little Malik.

I bolted about 1/3 up this huge arete only to strip it and come down 2 days after starting. To much choss. Could not in good conscience leave it up.

After several missed attempts to get a free flight or freight to europe I ended having to book a first class ticket on my miles to accommodate the gear. The nice side, is the lounge in Zurich for the 6 hour layover.

Huh? What is that doing there? testing the camera.

More drinking with underage teens. always a joy to support such activities LOL...

Giving out some shoes from the donation bag in Zemun. Sumsko and a promising little one making the best of a 41c day.

Jr girls interviewed for a documentary.

Prana really came through. Chalk bags were a big hit. This little 6 year old is gonna one day harass Prana for money after winning a world cup. Mark my words.

More smiles. more fun. Better climbing with actual climbing shoes from LS and the gang in Alberta.

14 years old and he is like 6.6'. FUCK. LOL

After drinking and getting some food ( drinking comes first ) we hang at Jera's love nest in Beo. I passed out shortly after this shot.

My bolting bag and a new pair of boulder x was waiting for me. Although a little squished from a year at the bottom of a bag under a drill and hangers they replace my year olds ( left ). Always nice to feel the same old comfort in a new pair. Where will these shoes take me this round?

Arrived in Rijeka at 5 am. Self shot testing the timer on the docks of the Adriatic Sea.

Malik has a little naked fetish when eating.

While posing... with a prana beanie.

The family at late lunch...

Enna and Malik. Princess...????

Osp and the humidity index. Always welcome when needing an excuse to fail on 6c.

My serbian haircut. HA

Star wars?

After 8 hours of sleep over 3 days I arrive outside Laredo, Texas. I took a few shots of the bridge before crossing the border....

Mobile offices are the norm for me. Keeping in touch with LS, Maxim, Prana, So iLL and Climbtech is a must on a bi weekly basis. Sometimes its done from the comforts of a 200$ hotel room and private pool area...

Sometimes from the deserted check in desks in airports...

More nudity courtesy of Malik.

Nice little cave. more 6c rampage...LOL

Here are a few pics from the main Sponsors. Thank you so much. Nothing is impossible, when you think it is possible. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Ulric @ I don't want money, just send me free shit I can give away...

For tomorrow...

Good morning, in advance.

The OR. More to come.

Randy signs my copy of Climbing. But with a twist.

It's Time!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is my email sent a few minutes ago. You will understand.

Hi everyone. Hope you all are having a great summer. Most of us are prepping for the OR, and at which I will be really happy to see you all at.

It is also time for you to start packing what you could gather and/or promised for the foundation and ship it off to me ( free domicile ) for or before July 20th ( ship date ) so I can have it weighed and packed for its 5 week trip by boat across the seas to Split, Croatia, our starting point. I did manage to get a great rate ( on me ) for 300 kilos / 2 meters cube of gear. So iLL has already sent me the boxes as well as about a dozen individuals donations shipped to me from across Canada.

I have organized all flights and train transport inner Europe through miles donations and Air Canada Star Alliance for Eva and I. Jason and Martina are going to help in Macedonia on our way to Lebanon late Sept early Oct. I have set up events at gyms, comps and events for the gear to be divided equally ( so I need to know what I have ahead of time, hence the ship date ). Pula, Split, Belgrade, Montenegro, Beirut and three other cities are on the call sheet. Our trip is attracting a lot of attention, and we are getting booked solid for events, gatherings and developing of new areas along the trip.

I would ask you to add any patches, stickers, banners or any other promotion logos that can be tagged to bags and placed in good situ for photo and video shots for your help. We will also be editing  some videos upon our return and we will need all your logos in high-rez and press pages to make the most out of what you did for these kids.

Please ship everything to the following address. Please make sure it is code tagged correctly for brokerage exception and/or free domicile.

Climbing Gear for Kids Foundation of Canada
x xx xx x xxxx
xxx x xxxxx x xx
xxx xxx
xxxxxx

Thank you so much. I will keep you all in the loop as we approach the departure and the blog will stay busy with day to day updates once we are up and running. I will also have posters and stickers for you at the OR. :)


__

Ulric Rousseau
x x xxx xxx xxxx

So iLL
Maxim Ropes
New England Ropes
ClimbTech
La Sportiva Ambassador

Email xxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxx

WebPage www.entouragemgmt.com
Blog www.ulricrousseau.blogspot.com/



Sent to the following PEEPS in Discreet who are helping me out sooooooooooo Much.

Prana
Evolv
La Sportiva
Maxim
Climbtech
So iLL
Vetical Reality
Allez Up
Rock and Rope
Delire
Roc Gyms
Rock and Ice
Petzl
Boiler Room

Off the market.

Hi baby. Its been 2 days since I saw you and I am already a nervous wreck. My stomach aches. Not because I am sick, but because I cannot be with you tonight. 8 days till I see you again, but feels like 800... 

When I was in europe last year, I took the train over night to Croatia. My ipod somehow got stuck on repeat and I could only have one song, and this is the song that was playing. I keept looking out the window of the train, at the small distant lights of houses in the moutains, the couples getting older together, having a late supper or going to bed. 

Sipping jack daniels out of a small glass jar from the market the prior day, thinking about when would finally meet my partner. The one who could finally complet me, make me a man, make me stop wandering and begin wondering. Stop searching and begin looking forward.; And among the slow and distant silence across the boundaries of Bosnia and Serbia, between the border check points and the 4 am wake ups from the mussel of a russian ak47, my heart pounded for you, even though I had not met you yet. it pounded so hard you must have heard it in the distance calling out.

I hope you like this song. every time it comes on i remember this trip, this moment in my life when i knew it was going to be, possible, alive, in tune. That it was not all a waste of nothing. That my path would one day lead to you. and it has, and I am, tonight, forever, the happiest and most thankful man on earth.

I love you chica. Yesterday, today and for all the tomorrows to come.

To quote Tarantino, "Mon amour, l'aventure commence"

xxx

Trip-advisor "profanity" review.. LOL

My check in was super quick and apart from seeming to need an escort to my room ( unnecessary, reason for a tip? ) . I booked through expedia.ca, and paid 320$ for 4 nights. Posted on the desk was 2200 pesos ( about 180$ ) a night. saved big. Avoid walk ins in any big mexican city, fyi.

The room was, like every post said, small, but super clean and cozy. Water and shower was warm and pretty constant, except early in the morning, like 5am. Comfy bed and clean sheets. Flat screen tv, but no hdmi out, so my travel cables to plug my mac on the lcd were useless. Ac was good and room had good light from the massive windows and one did open about half way which does help counter the smallness of the room.

All the staff was very nice and the restaurant, though expensive, was also very clean and good. Listen, its a hotel, if you want cheap food, walk a few meters and lots of Starbucks, pizza places and of course tacos. You cannot put expensive food or wine in the negative column of a review for hotels, it is to be expected.

all in all, good actual hotel. good coffee too. good waiters and smiling.

the negs.

I have traveled many worlds and many countries, alone and by group and stayed in all sorts of accommodations, but I have never been so blindly robbed then in Mexico City. 

My first day, after a goods night sleep, i left for the airport to pick the GF. I closed the door and remembered that I had left a 100$ pesos on the floor by the desk in the room, I figured i would be back by 9am and before the cleaning crew.

wrong. we get to the room, one, the cleaning crew was on break, room half made so we couldn't, you know, and 2, the 100 pesos was gone. i said nothing. the cleaning women was a little stressed. hummmmm. we used the safe from then on for everything, and had no issues.

cabs are thieves. do not, DO NOT take a a cab service from the hotel. depending on the cab, it is between 3 to 10X the price except for the airport run which everyone knows the price ( 220 ), so they cant fuck you over.. we had one cab try to charge us 700 pesos for a 40 pesos ride we took later from a street cab.

here is a tip. google the distance for your travels, write them down. the fare should cost you no more then about 15 pesos per km. NO MORE. including tip. if he charges you more, call the police. honestly. we did and got a couple rides free.

the taxis want money, the cops, want you to come back, so they will fuck with the cabbies.

we took a cab from reforma to conade sports center at 8am on a saturday, it cost 99 pesos. to return, we took a cab, and after 30 minutes we realizes he was circling around the city, after a while I told him to stop, paid the 240$ and we where still about 40 pesos from home.

the only time you should take a taxi service from booths is at the airports. other then that, city cabs are best bet. haggle and hustle, its part of the game, and do not be afraid to tell him to stop and walk out.

at no point could I use internet in the hotel. wifi was so shitty, and could only be used in the lobby and restaurants.  the cable internet out from the wall stopped working a few hours after i plugged it in. it was good until then. but the cable was about 8 inches long. so no bed work.

If i owned this hotel I would really concentrate on 2 things, fair cab rides and get a fucking internet companies to come in and fix the internet. its 2013 for christ sakes. everything is online, Skype, whatsapp, email, fb. how do you expect people to work? I pity the poor sap who pays extra for the internet ( not included when you book through other sites ) and then deal with the issue.

breakfast was expensive for what it was. it was good, but coffee and fruit for 12$ is steep, even in european standards.

all in all. hotel was 3 stars ( one star off for the net and one for the cab robbers ), bad apple aside, staff was 5 stars ( 4 if you factor in the cleaning women incident. )

i liked the reforma area, but would stay in zone rosa next time. "Sabor Amour" was a good romantic eat,  reserve ahead of time ( or have a driver call for you, we did ), wine list was good and food was superb. waiters where a little annoying always trying to do something, forgetting that the bet waiter is a ninja. google the restaurant, really cute. unexpected in DF.

hope this helps.

pz./

Spring cleaning

Sorry for the huge time lapse between posts. A lot of work has me pinned down and running to catch up.

Preparing for the summer travel season, but without my rig. So I thought it was time to clean it. Finally found the rotting grape vine that was pestering and fuming up my van for months. I think they are from Texas. :)

Boxes for the foundation are starting to come in. I think its time to call santa, cause no way can I get all this gear to europe in one trip. WOW. I will get some pictures of next week. Maybe a vid with time lapse.

I thought this was pretty cool. Ara ( below ) and I went to the Jazz fest in Montreal. 1.5 million people attend the thousands of free shows in the streets for 9 days. This was posted up on the top of the Place des Arts building. Translated... The world is a vast theatre, and we are all actors in it.

Nothing but sex and drugs in Montreal.

Rock and Roll mobile museum. TIGHT!

 Prices are out of control. Can anyone tell me why we sent kids off to the Mideast  to die?

 

Chalk and too much time on my hands.

My nephew and niece, and a day at the trailer-trash amusement park.

The office.

POST!

Venting

Just need to vent.

So Monsanto is feeding our kids plastic, Coca Cola is selling tap water as aquafina, dentyne is using manure as a sweetener in its gum, you spend 2 hours a day breathing in the exhaust of your office mates in traffic, drink back our own viagra in Manhattans water supply after urinating it in the toilet, invade countries for oil, sell weapons to both sides of waring clans in north africa, spy on me with PRISM when I send an email or make a call, shove your hands in my empty pockets after I pay my taxes so you can fly around in private airplanes, take a 20 million dollar pay check while your average wal-mart worker makes 5.50$ an hour with no benefits and the product they sell are made by 4 year olds chained to a cement block in china, where they can't afford anything they are making, even on pro-deal. Oh and they poop in the same river the cows that your butcher kills drinks from on a record breaking heatwave in the middle of the Arctic, that now is a oil infested war-zone waiting to happen, just make sure we don't bother the salt level in the north atlantic current cause hell, we might all move into the top 1% of the populations houses on top of the hills who own 99% of the wealth. Did I miss anyone?

nutella

Fuck. Read all about it.

Love Nutella?

Great. Enjoy it. I don’t.

Well, yeah. I used to love it. Before, when I discovered it, I loved it, I even adored it. To the extent that I’d eat it straight from the jar. No spoon, just my fingers. I know, it’s not terribly hygienic. But it’s not all that bad… because after all, I don’t share my Nutella. A jar is for me. Just me. And it got empty really, really fast. Terribly addicting, isn’t it?

Terribly addicting indeed… but not surprising, because because the truth is that Nutella would contain monosodium glutamate , aka E621 ^[1] deeply hidden in the famous word ‘flavorings’. ^[2] You know, glutamate, the flavor enhancer that would stimulate appetite and maliciously destroy neurons^[3]… To this is added –  wait for it – a small dose of … plastic ! And yes, our famous spread contains DEHP , one of the most dangerous phthalates ^[4], which is usually used to produce packaging and has the nasty tendency to migrate into the product. Be aware that this unwelcome guest is banned in toys and cosmetics because it is considered a carcinogen and induces, uh … testicular atrophy. Nice, huh?

Fine, fine, I’m not telling you anything new when I mention that Nutella is 70% palm oil and refined sugar, remember that skim milk powder and whey? Ferrero has for long refused to say whether or not they come from animals fed with GMOs…

Oh, but wait, there’s hazelnuts and cocoa at any rate! Oh yeah, well, 20% of the finished product … not bad for a spread that should be composed of 2/3…

Fine, end of discussion. As for me, I say  Nutella is dying.

Check out the whole piece and how to make your own " good for your kids " nutella.

http://antigonexxi.com/recettes/a-la-table-du-petit-dejeuner/nutella-is-dead/

Fuck again.

The great party of human help...

Chris Sharma: Behind the Scenes from So iLL on Vimeo.

Track of the Day!

This will get you going tomorrow morning. Here is the vid and the link file ( right click, download linked file as )

PZ.

http://lsd-25.ru/uploads/Seven%20Lions%20-%20Polarize%20EP%20(2012)[VPR044][V0]/VPR044-003-Seven_Lions_feat_Shaz_Sparks-Below_Us-Smooths_DnB_Mix.mp3

Mike

My best friend Mike die two years ago today. Lingering in columbia, life styling to the extreme a world drawn against itself in everyday, he threw the arms up for everyone.

I spent the day today in a haze. Flashes of thoughts and dreams, memories imbedded deep in me. The drizzly air today felt abut right, to think about the love that is gone, and on the other, the love I am chasing, all only to fill some selfish dark whole I guess.

Truth is Mike had it right. Live fast, climb a Muerte, and leave no stone unturned. Try everything, at least once, and he always understood my little poetic, romantic escapades, and always encouraged them. He of all, knew what I was mad of. Maybe, that is why, he and I could spend hours not saying a word to each other, but then attack without warning in perfect harmony.

I was told something today that really stirred me. I was told I should not lay my heart on my sleeve so much. Care or what have you.

Mike. I think of you everyday. Every time I plug in my earphones to climb, or I take a right turn at the wheel ( remember? Hahahahaha ). Every time I see a heavy metal t shirt, or when I drink coffee. I hope you and my dog are happy somewhere, with lots of bitches, and women, cool shade, steep routes, large fields and endless forearm strength.

I wish you the best and the longest eternal life.

What you did in life, has echoed at least in mine, and will forever stay alive.

Love.

Ulric.

Here is a vid of Mike Climbing. Found it a few moments ago while hustling the photo docs.

Climbtech

ClimbTech Anchors for Rope Access from ClimbTech on Vimeo.

Dark Star

I woke to rain sparkling the roof of the camper this morning. Chimes at about 5am. Like most everyone does after taking the gunk out of the corner if their eyes', I picked up my cell to check msgs and sorts. These days my focus has been extremely narrow. My energies focused on one person in particular. This song is for her.

The world will continue forward on its axis Eva. The birds will sing this morning in your garden tree like yesturday and you will face some obstacles again as you will everyday from hence forth. The only thing that matters is how you face those chanllenges. Take a step forward, unsheath your sword and swing away at them without worrying about your blind spot, cause I got em covered. You might even feel my hand at the small of your back should you wither for a moment.

Breakaway from the pack, put on your game face and use that sharp weapon of iron in good manner.

XXX

Watch "Jonas David - Arrows" on YouTube

So iLL... LLLLLLLLLLL

So iLL: Holds Everywhere from So iLL on Vimeo.

Newfee on the job!

My boy joe cleaning in NewFoundland... Props...

Paige Claassen

Its not always about 15+. Its about doing what you love. My team-mayte Paige hittin' it big in Smith.

WHAT IF MONEY...

Nothing seems so simple anymore. Everything is up and running. Quicker and longer. More intense and faster orgasms. I leave you with this, tonight.

Do what you want. ALWAYS!

Sleep tight fair friends.

Whatever u do today...

It is sometimes an arduous process to validate my way of life. An auspicious moment revels in its own time in accordance to its maintained space. We all live it. Some of us to great things, magnificent things in the fight for a greater cause. I bow my head to the humans who drive without fuel, who search without a compass and who walk without a Map.


https://vimeo.com/58969916

No worries. :)

Can't wait to push this shit in Serbia :)


Pendulum from Riot House Production on Vimeo.