Carlos Soria Fontán: Spain’s 86-Year-Old Mountaineer Returns to the Peak That Started It All
At an age when most people are content with gentle walks in the park, Carlos Soria Fontán is preparing to climb an 8,163-meter mountain. The 86-year-old Spanish mountaineer stands as living proof that age is just a number, and that dreams don’t come with an expiration date.
Carlos Soria’s story begins in the modest town of Ávila, northwest of Madrid, where he was born on February 5, 1939. As a teenager working as an upholsterer, young Carlos felt the call of the mountains when he was just 14 years old. Armed with nothing but youthful enthusiasm and a friend named Antonio Riaño, he set out to explore the Sierra de Guadarrama mountains near Madrid.
That first taste of the peaks changed everything. The boy who had been content fixing furniture suddenly found himself dreaming of higher places, steeper slopes, and the crisp air that comes with altitude. By 21, Carlos was already thinking bigger. In 1960, he and a friend embarked on what many would consider a crazy adventure they rode a Vespa motorcycle for three days straight to reach the Alps, where Carlos would tackle his first truly difficult climbs.
It was an early sign of the determination that would define his entire life. While others saw obstacles, Carlos saw possibilities.
The 1960s and 70s were Carlos’s apprenticeship years. In 1968, he joined the first Spanish expedition to the Soviet Union, where they climbed Mount Elbrus, Europe’s highest peak at 5,642 meters. Three years later, in 1971, he ventured to Alaska to tackle Denali (Mount McKinley), North America’s highest mountain at 6,194 meters.
But it was the Himalayas that would become his true calling. In 1973 and 1975, Carlos participated in Spain’s pioneering Himalayan expeditions. He was there in 1975 when his countrymen Gerardo Blazquez Garcia and Jeronimo Lopez Martinez, along with Nepali guide Sonam Wolang Sherpa, became the first Spanish team to summit Manaslu. Carlos climbed to 7,000 meters on that historic expedition before turning back a decision that would haunt and motivate him for decades to come.
What makes Carlos’s story remarkable isn’t just what he achieved, but when he achieved it. His first successful summit of an 8,000-meter peak didn’t come until 1990, when he was 51 years old and summited Nanga Parbat. For most climbers, this would have been the culmination of a career. For Carlos, it was just the beginning.
The numbers tell an extraordinary tale. Carlos has now summited 12 of the world’s 14 peaks over 8,000 meters. But here’s what makes him unique in mountaineering history he has climbed ten of these giants after the age of 60. No other person in the world has achieved anything close to this feat.
His record-breaking climbs read like a roll call of the impossible:
K2 at age 65 (2004), Broad Peak at 68 (2007), Makalu at 69 (2008) ,Gasherbrum I at 70 (2009), Manaslu at 71 (2010) ,Lhotse at 72 (2011) ,Kangchenjunga at 75 (2014) and Annapurna at 77 (2016)
Each summit broke age records. Each climb defied conventional wisdom about what the human body can accomplish in life’s later decades.
If Carlos has a nemesis, it’s Dhaulagiri, the seventh-highest mountain in the world. This peak has become his white whale, the mountain that has tested his resolve like no other. Carlos has attempted Dhaulagiri 15 times since 1998, and 15 times the mountain has turned him away.
His most recent setback came in 2023 when a Sherpa accidentally fell on him, injuring his leg. In 2022, he climbed to 7,400 meters before bad weather forced a retreat. The year before that, he had to withdraw twice – first due to the pandemic and poor conditions, then because of knee problems.
Yet Carlos refuses to give up. “If Carlos succeeds on Manaslu,” says Mingma Sherpa, chairman of Seven Summit Treks, “he will make another attempt on Dhaulagiri. But if he fails, it could mark the end of his mountaineering career.”
What drives an 86-year-old man to keep climbing the world’s most dangerous mountains? For Carlos, it’s not about climbing peaks – it’s about understanding them, respecting them, and finding his place within the natural world.
“The mountains teach you humility,” Carlos often says in his lectures across Spain. “They show you that you are small, but also that you are capable of incredible things if you approach them with respect and preparation.”
Carlos’s climbing philosophy centers on three core principles: prudence, preparation, and perseverance.
He doesn’t climb to prove anything to anyone else; he climbs because the mountains call to something deep within him. He advocates for what he calls “intelligent risk-taking” understanding dangers and preparing for them, rather than rushing headlong into peril.
His approach to nature is one of partnership rather than domination. “The mountain will decide if you reach the summit,” he explains. “Your job is to be ready when the mountain says yes.”
Carlos’s achievements aren’t just inspiring – they’re scientifically fascinating. For decades, he has collaborated with Spain’s National Institute of Physical Education, allowing researchers to study how his body adapts to extreme altitude and exertion at an advanced age.
His success challenges everything we think we know about aging and physical capability. While most people experience declining strength and endurance as they age, Carlos has maintained and even improved his mountaineering abilities well into his 80s.
“At the age of 86, when most people struggle even to stand straight, his determination is extraordinary,” observes Mingma Sherpa. “Carlos is a mountaineer of another level.”
Carlos’s life extends far beyond climbing. At 70, he completed the Seven Summits challenge, climbing the highest peak on each continent. His adventures have taken him from the frozen heights of Antarctica’s Mount Vinson to the tropical slopes of New Guinea’s Carstensz Pyramid.
But perhaps more importantly, Carlos has become a symbol of what’s possible when you refuse to accept limitations. His local roots and personal simplicity – he still lives modestly despite his fame add a human dimension to his extraordinary achievements.
He regularly speaks at conferences and forums, sharing his message that age doesn’t have to mean the end of adventure. “I want to show people that you can live fully, both physically and mentally, at any age,” he says.
Today, at 86, Carlos is preparing for what might be his final major Himalayan expedition. He’s planning to climb Manaslu again, this time to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Spain’s first successful ascent of the peak. It’s the mountain where his Himalayan journey began in 1973, and where he achieved his first 8,000-meter summit at age 71.
The symbolism is powerful. Carlos recently completed training climbs in Argentina, ascending Aconcagua to prepare his body for the challenges ahead. “All for Manaslu,” he says simply.
If successful, he will become the oldest person ever to climb an 8,000-meter peak, breaking the record currently held by 80-year-old Japanese climber Yuichiro Miura, who scaled Everest in 2013.
Carlos Soria Fontán represents something rare in our youth-obsessed world: proof that life’s greatest adventures might still lie ahead, regardless of the number of candles on your birthday cake. He has rewritten the rules of what’s possible in mountaineering and, more broadly, in life itself.
His story isn’t just about climbing mountains it’s about climbing over the limitations that society, and sometimes we ourselves, place on our dreams. In a world that often sees aging as decline, Carlos sees it as accumulation of wisdom, experience, and the deep satisfaction that comes from a life lived fully.
Only two peaks remain on his list of 14 eight-thousanders: Dhaulagiri, his longtime nemesis, and Shishapangma in Tibet. Whether he summits them or not, Carlos Soria has already achieved something far more valuable than any summit. He has shown us that the human spirit, like the mountains themselves, recognizes no limits.
As he prepares for Manaslu at 86, Carlos carries with him not just decades of climbing experience, but a simple philosophy that could inspire anyone “The only way to find out what you’re capable of is to keep trying, no matter how old you are.”
In the end, that might be the most important summit he’s helped us all reach.
