Carlos Soria, the 78-year-old Spanish mountain climber aiming to become the oldest person to summit all 14 eight-thousanders, has abandoned his attempt to ascend Dhaulagiri this season due to heavy snows. Meanwhile, 75-year old American Bill Burke resting in Namche in preparation for his fourth attempt on Burke-Khan.
Carlos Soria is the only mountaineer to have ascended ten mountains of more than 8,000 meters after turning 65. He only needs to summit Dhaulagiri and Shisha Pangma to complete his challenge, and he aimed to complete Dhaulagiri in 2017. On September 26, Carlos Soria sent the message, “This morning we started a second attempt at the mountain…We quickly realized that the amount of snow was a major barrier to attempting the summit…The danger of avalanche is high and we have no choice but to abandon our Dhaulagiri expedition for this season.”
Carlos had crossed the 8,000 m barrier 11 days before, and was just 100 meters from the summit when he decided to return to base camp due to poor visibility.
Meanwhile, Bill Burke, the oldest American to reach the summit of Everest and return alive, is resting in Namche in preparation for his fourth attempt on Burke-Khan, a 6,942m peak located between Everest and Cho Oyu and named after Burk by the Nepalese Government.
Carlos Soria is the oldest person in history to climb the following mountains: K2 (aged 65), Broad
Peak (68), Makalu (69), Gasherbrum I (70), Manaslu (71), Kanchenjunga
(75) and Annapurna (77).
Bill Burke: link
