81-year-old mountaineer trains for Himalayas in a tribute to elderly COVID-19 victims

Image Source: REUTERS/Juan Medina

How often have we heard the adage that age is just a number and that we are only as old as we think.

Here is a story that reinforces this!

To pay a great tribute to elderly victims of COVID-19, 81-year-old Spanish mountaineer Carlos Soria is training to climb the Himalayas.

In climbing the Dhaulagiri peak in Nepal, Soria aims to become the oldest mountaineer ever to conquer the world’s 14 highest peaks. He has already reached the summit of 12 of the tallest mountains in the world barring the Dhaulagiri summit and the Shishapangma peak in Tibet.

“To all those who have disappeared because of this terrible pandemic, this terrible crisis, I want as an elderly person to dedicate it to them,” Soria said outside his home in the Sierra Guadarrama mountains, north of Madrid in Spain.

He had planned to climb the Dhaulagiri earlier; however, the coronavirus pandemic and travel restrictions stopped him from doing so. However, Soria utilized this time very effectively in training himself to achieve his dream – he slept in a hypobaric chamber, in which the atmospheric conditions of life are similar to those at 5,000 metres above sea level.

If the travel restrictions ease off, Soria intends to capture the peak in the spring.

“Now I’m a bit older I think it’s a beautiful idea to show people of a certain age that they shouldn’t abandon things just because of their age.”

Wow! Aren’t those some amazing and inspiring lines? What do you think?

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