Xavier Ladouceur is 20 years old. Once a week for about a year, he gets in his car, crosses the US border and climbs a mountain. In the evening, he goes the opposite way to return home.
“Thursdays I finish at 2 p.m. I leave Saint-Basile-le-Grand, I go to New York, in the Adirondacks. I climb a mountain. I come home, it’s 11 p.m. or midnight and I work at 9 a.m. the next day, ”explains the young man on the phone. “I don’t miss a [week]!” »
This passion of Xavier for the mountains, as ardent as it is, is still very recent. All it took was a one-day ascent, last summer in the Gaspé, to ignite this furious flame that has been burning in him ever since and which will lead him to climb Kilimanjaro, the mythical mountain of Tanzania, in September.
“Being in the mountains really makes me forget about all my problems. You can’t lie in front of the mountain. It is difficult to explain. It’s you against the [weather]. No matter how it’s going to be, you have one thing in mind and that’s to go up. »
Xavier’s Instagram account, stuffed with splendid photos captured on different peaks, allows us to fully understand the young man’s greed for these adventures, which he undertakes with various friends.
The resident of the South Shore sometimes even allows himself a little extra splurge; in one of his videos, he can be seen elegantly dressed on top of a mountain, a platter of charcuterie in his hand. These pictures have gone viral.
In this way, Xavier hopes to make himself known in order to, in particular, find sponsors for his future major expeditions. “The more you make yourself known, the more you are able to get sponsors left and right,” he notes.
The young man, who is a private trainer, also hopes to send a message: that of pushing young people of his generation to surpass themselves.
“Sometimes I wonder why I’m alone in the mountains. I think to myself, am I the one who’s crazy or are the others missing something? There are a lot [of people] who write to me at night and say: thank you for your motivation, you have changed my life, thanks to you, I started climbing mountains and I’m tripping, I started to train and take care of myself. »
As his passion for mountaineering is still new, Xavier Ladouceur is learning. He remembers one time when he was “really scared for [his] life”. It was in March, in Vermont. Delayed at customs, the young man and his friend began their ascent of Camel’s Hump in the late afternoon. The sun set at 5 p.m.; the two were practically alone on the mountain.
“I’m such a hard-to-return person. I’m not a loser, forget Xavier. I was like, we’re going up, we’re going up, we’re going up. […] It was 7 p.m. We had 30 minutes left. It was starting to wind a lot. I was freaking out. »
Once back home, Xavier thought about what had happened. Things could have turned into a nightmare. “If it had gone wrong, there would have been no one to come and help us. Of course I learned from that. It’s about exercising judgment, above all. »
Last summer, Xavier Ladouceur heard about Marie-Pier Desharnais, this Quebec mountaineer who climbed K2 – and many other peaks. “At one point, I open my Instagram and I see that she has made a publication: there are a few places left to come and join us on the top of Kilimanjaro”, he says.
When he broaches the subject with his mother, she is speechless. “Well no, you’re crazy, you’ll never do that,” she tells him. His friends have much the same reaction.
Xavier believed in it. He found his current job and started working 40 hours a week to raise the $10,000 to $15,000 needed for the trip. He created a GoFundMe page to raise funds; in 24 hours, he raised $2,450.
“My mother is very stressed, but at the same time, I live for me and I’m not going to stop living because of it. […] Basically, as long as I am happy, I think she will be happy. »
“I train six times a week in free weight training. I swim four times a week, run three times a week, and climb twice a week. »
“I’m putting all the chances on my side to succeed in this project that if I don’t succeed, I won’t be able to say to myself: I could have done better. »
This expedition, Xavier sees it as a “stepping stone” to even greater journeys. His goal is to reach the summit of Everest in 2025, at the age of 22.
But for now, it’s practice time.
