
Ewoolution is a blog about us; Raffael and Allison set off to drive around Europe the next few months in the search of nice lines to climb, to ride, to walk, to slack and to share. Ewoolution is our solution to share with the rest of you what we do, what we learn and let it Evolve. So take your foot off the pedal, relax and Enjoy!
Saturday, December 19, 2015
Friday, November 20, 2015
On the road again 2015
Ewoolution is back on the road after a summer of settling down in a house in Switzerland. Tara is now 1 year old, she has her own bedroom in the driving cubicle of the van and we are ready for living on the road again.

We started with Finale Ligure, part of our heart lays there, we always look forward to going back and meeting our old friends and making new ones. Tara felt very free and explored the town with or without us and she figured out very fast that Toni's cafe was the daily stop and where she could always get cookies !
Keep it slack !
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
Ulassai, Sardinia












Sunday, June 22, 2014
Our 2nd year on the road...
We had just spent one year living in
the van, traveling around Europe for rock climbing, highlining,
biking, all supported by our wool hats handmade wherever we traveled.
We have no flat or permanent address apart from our respective
families and friends and the plan was to travel one year and go back
to a « normal » life, but we decided that living on the
road suited us and was possible so we opted for being homeless by
choice : slacklife.
Climbing and highline events are an
essential part of our travels because not only do we meet up with
friends, and make new ones, but we also spread out the idea of
Ewoolution « handmade on the road » with our hats and
earn the means to continue the simple life we choose.
After visiting the 2nd Monte
Piana Highline Meeting, we spent some time in the Dolomites before
heading to Finale Ligure to participate in the Finale for Nepal ;
a boulder event raising funds for schools in Nepal. We helped and
sold our hats donating a percentage of what we made towards Nepal.We
really enjoyed the people and this area filled with climbing spots,
highlines and high class biking trails ; we stayed two months...
Leaving Italy was hard but we had eaten
enough pizza and we were ready for some fresh greek salads and some
tuffa climbing in Kalymnos. Our van decided otherwise and showed
signs of weakness on the way to the ferry until it blew its last
breath on the pass above La Spezia, at midnight, 150km from our
departure point. After being a kick start on our new adventures, Italy
was starting to be our worst nightmare. Our van was towed to two
different mechanics in the area, no solution except for a new and
expensive engine, so we decided that the Citroen Jumper would have
better luck in its home country : France. We couldn't believe
the turn of events when we were given the French bill of repair that
was higher and higher everywhere we searched. We also kept hearing
from everyone that we had better just get a new van, that it wasn't
worth it. We persisted thinking that it was, it couldn't end like
that.
We were then living with friends,
winter was knocking on the door with very cold fingers, so we were
making hats. Decisions needed to be made and at this point nothing
felt right anymore : physically, mentally, environmentally, and
when you least expect it, things can take a whole new turn ; I
was pregnant !
![]() |
night at the airport |
I believe that in this chain of events
and situation, most would have panicked and maybe seen it as the
icing on the cake, but somehow, we reacted calmly as a reason to
change our view on everything that had happened. Of course, the
« normal » way of life would have pushed us to settle
somewhere and prepare for the new coming life, but we felt the need
to continue with our travels and get back into our familiar rocky
surroundings ; we flew to Turkey.
Arriving to Geyikbayiri is like coming
home after a long holiday, we feel at home, we meet our friends, and
find our bearings and habits. We were breathing new air, the sun was
shining and our motivation was back. We were quite out of shape but
we quickly started climbing strong again and though being two and a
half months pregnant I was climbing strong but mostly on top rope.
Raf had the project to bolt new lines and along with our friend Klaas
Willems, they found new possibilities in an already popular sector. I baptized Raf's first route in that sector called « Passenger »
6b with a tricky crux by first ascending it on lead, excited and
nervous to be carrying my passenger with me on this new experience ! The next line he bolted in the same sector: "Daddy Cool", first ascent from Klaas Willems.
![]() |
Allison in "Passenger" 6b, pic K. Willems |
![]() |
Raffa in "Daddy Cool" 8a, pic K.Willems |
Rest days started to turn into bolting days for the guys and I got
curious to try it also. With Klaas Willems, we decided to bolt a
birthday route for Raf in the most popular sector of the area, a
major line : 35meters long, crimpy and technical on slight
overhang ; a 7c+ we called Rafsta Games in between Geyikbayiri
Games and Olympos Games in the famous and impressive sector Sarkit.
![]() |
Raffa in "Daddy Cool" 8a Pic K.Willems |
![]() |
Raffa in "Rafsta Games" 7c+, pic K.Willems |
![]() |
"Rafsta Games", pic K.Willems |
![]() |
Pic. Klaas Willems |
When he was not bolting or climbing new
lines, Raf was bolting for the highline festival which expected 18
highline set ups. A whole new sector was equipped giving a large
range of possibilities for all levels ; it turned out to be the
most popular place to be during the event. We were trying to prepare
for a larger amount of participants considering the success o f the
previous year and we were pleasantly surprised by 150 slackliners
doubling last years' already considerable group.
Jumpline session at Rido's, pic Bulut Sahin Neco impressing the crowd for opening night, pic K. Willems
![]() |
Danny Mensik in Anatolia sector, pic K.Willems |
![]() |
cooking at Rido's, pic K. Willems |
![]() |
Fire balloons exploding for the opening night, pic K.Willems |
![]() |
SlackPro Calm Line Contest in the new sector: Riverside, pic M. Reza Abaee |
![]() |
Dj Stretch Flo Hansen, pic M. Reza Abaee |
![]() | |||
Raffa in Canyon sector, pic M. Reza Abaee |
![]() | ||
"THC" special edition hats, photo by Klaas Willems |
We had two more weeks left in Turkey ;
we drove West to a new area called Datca being developed by a friend
of ours. During one week Raf and our friend had a bolting festival
setting on average two new lines each per day. The excitement is
obvious for a climber when he sees so much virgin rock and so many
possible lines. I was in my fifth month and wanted to mark the
territory also so I bolted my first line alone, which made me want to
do more !
We really enjoyed participating in the
creation if a new place, putting our mark into the wall to benefit
the pleasure for others to ascend new routes and to give the locals a
new perspectives on the environment surrounding them.
We had heard of a new area in Sardinia
where a group of our friends had a plan to go spend a month in May
for bolting and developing the place.
We needed to get our van up and running
again to take us there and get Ewoolution back on the road.
![]() |
old engine out |
![]() |
![]() |
Raf remodeling the van in Annecy while Allison's making hats.. |
Saturday, October 26, 2013
Update!
It´s time for an update!
The blog has been feeling a little left out I think, and though I´ve been thinking alot about it, the posts just don't write themselves!
I want to change the style a little though because I just can´t keep up by posting about every place we have been since Bulgaria which is alot so I prefer to start fresh from where we are and for sure stories of the other places we've been all of this year will come up!
I would rather also just pick topics I feel like writing about and sharing, the stories we have, and also the experiences we´ve made in different areas.
Right now our main focus has been EWOOLUTION and our hats, we´ve been making so many hats since we´ve been in Italy its insane but it´s really cool to see how much everyone is enthused about our work and how much they appreciate it and want to support this way we have of making hats on the road, and traveling to do the things we love to do.
We have been in Finale Ligure for the past month and came to participate in the Finale for Nepal event which organises bouldering competitions from amateurs to pros, slackline shows, and the brands come and set up stands all around the village of FINALBORGO. The profits are used to help build a school in a mountain village for the kids to have access to education and also promoting the development of climbing areas and more.
We had our first real stand at this event and we kept busy all day making special orders. Its really cool how everyone is interested; alot of elder people love seeing us crochetting, it either reminds them of their mother doing it or gives them inspiration on their own handmade work. They also get a kick out of seeing Raffi making hats and impressed at the speed we make them!
After the event, while helping to clean up the village, we got asked if we would be available to help on the next event which would be the SUPER ENDURO world series final in Finale Ligure 2 weeks later.. We said yes for sure why not, if we can sell our hats during the event in exchange... We have never been in a biking event so the idea was fun and bikers also need hats when they take their helmets off!
Turns out this event was a great success! we actually SOLD OUT of the hats we had made, and had so many special orders we actually ran out of wool! We were actually working nearly 8hour days just crocheting and I can tell you it is work! But its such a nice work and the result gives a unique product that someone then wears and as we continue to travel the hat travels too..
There were times where the stand was full of people trying hats, looking through the wool for colors they wanted while we tried to keep a rhythm to make the orders we already had! The kids are so cool; they come to the stand in groups, try on all the hats, and they get so excited and are also really interested in watching how we make...
The blog has been feeling a little left out I think, and though I´ve been thinking alot about it, the posts just don't write themselves!
I want to change the style a little though because I just can´t keep up by posting about every place we have been since Bulgaria which is alot so I prefer to start fresh from where we are and for sure stories of the other places we've been all of this year will come up!
I would rather also just pick topics I feel like writing about and sharing, the stories we have, and also the experiences we´ve made in different areas.
Right now our main focus has been EWOOLUTION and our hats, we´ve been making so many hats since we´ve been in Italy its insane but it´s really cool to see how much everyone is enthused about our work and how much they appreciate it and want to support this way we have of making hats on the road, and traveling to do the things we love to do.

We had our first real stand at this event and we kept busy all day making special orders. Its really cool how everyone is interested; alot of elder people love seeing us crochetting, it either reminds them of their mother doing it or gives them inspiration on their own handmade work. They also get a kick out of seeing Raffi making hats and impressed at the speed we make them!
After the event, while helping to clean up the village, we got asked if we would be available to help on the next event which would be the SUPER ENDURO world series final in Finale Ligure 2 weeks later.. We said yes for sure why not, if we can sell our hats during the event in exchange... We have never been in a biking event so the idea was fun and bikers also need hats when they take their helmets off!
Turns out this event was a great success! we actually SOLD OUT of the hats we had made, and had so many special orders we actually ran out of wool! We were actually working nearly 8hour days just crocheting and I can tell you it is work! But its such a nice work and the result gives a unique product that someone then wears and as we continue to travel the hat travels too..
So here we go for Round 2 of EWOOLUTION´s tour around Europe: thanks to Italy for the great kickoff!
In Hats we Trust!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)