This year Carlos Soria has just turned 77 and right now he is planning yet another trip to Nepal with the aim of conquering two of the “eight thousand meter” mountains on the same expedition; namely, the Annapurna and the Dhaulagiri. If he is successful, he will become the oldest person ever to do so. In addition, he will also continue with his altruistic work of helping to construct schools in Nepal.

In 2015, Carlos Soria found himself on a mountaineering expedition just when the latest destructive earthquake took place in this land of Sherpas. The catastrophe killed thousands of people and left many more homeless and destitute over a large part of Nepal. On his return home, a good friend of his, Luis Miguel López, created the aid organization – Ayuda Directa Himalaya – and Carlos immediately committed himself to collecting solidarity funding for the organization along with many other mountaineers. Already, they have managed to construct two new schools in that devastated country.

Here at Kukuxumusu, mountaineering holds an inspiring corner for us. And indeed, we have collaborated with Carlos on several occasions with our drawings and T-shirts inspired in his mountaineering expeditions. For example, when he went to Manaslu in 2010. Indeed, this is not the first time that he has attempted to climb these two peaks: in 2011 he attempted to get to the summit of the Dhaula, and in 2012, he tried to reach the peak of the Annapurna.

We have also accompanied many other accomplished climbers to the Himalayas with our sketching pencils and drawings; “top” mountaineers such as Edurne Pasaban, Juanito Oiarzabal, the Iñurrategi brothers, Denis Urubko. Indeed, we have even designed a couple of T-shirts in collaboration with two mythical mountaineers -, no less than Sir Edmund Hillary and Reinhold Messner.

Carlos Soria hails from Avila and he possesses a pair of enormous hands and arms. His leathered skin reflects the many hours he has spent exposed to sun and wind. Above all, he still exudes an insatiable hunger to conquer the highest mountains. Age cannot hold him back from attempting this latest challenge in Nepal: to conquer two of the classic “eight-thousand-meters” on the same expedition – the fearful Annapurna (8, 091 mt.) and then the awesome Dhaulagiri (8, 167 mt.), or the ‘Daula’, as the mountaineers often colloquially refer to this mountain.

Just some 24 kilometers separate these two peaks, but within that labyrinth of mountains the distance presents a real challenge. If he manages to succeed, Carlos Soria will create a new record for being the oldest climber ever to conquer both peaks. And it would also mean that there would be just one remaining “eight-thousand-meter” mountain remaining to be conquered by him – the Shisha Pangma.

We shall be closely following the steps of Carlos Soria on the social networks. His Facebook page will be updated constantly and here we hope to find pins of videos and photos. Who knows…perhaps he could come across the authentic Yeti… or maybe even the Kukuxumusu one, which, after all, is surely a close cousin at the very least.

From Kukuxumusu we wish him the very best of luck with all his projects and let’s hope he can accomplish that Tibetan expression which Reinhold Messner revealed to us when he collaborated on the design of one of our mythical T-shirts “Kalipe!” (“Step by step, always tranquil”).

We wouldn’t mind going climbing with him on the slopes of the Himalayas and losing ourselves amid the dense snow…So while we warm up to that idea, we shall continue putting our equipment together: bottles, Buffs, T-shirts and sweatshirts all with drawings inspired by the mountains.