IFEMA ANNOUNCES ITS SPONSORSHIP MOUNTAINEER CARLOS SORIA’S EXPEDITION TO THE PEAK OF THE DHAULAGIRI

Today, IFEMA officially announced its sponsorship of the one of the sporting events of the year, the expedition to the peak of the Dhaulagiri, the world’s seventh highest mountain. IFEMA is supporting Carlos Soria, Spain’s most international mountaineer, who will set off on this epic journey on 26 March. The sponsorship was announced by IFEMA’s general manager, Eduardo López-Puertas, accompanied by Luis Cueto, General Coordinator of Madrid City Council; Javier Ruiz, Deputy Regional manager of the Economy and Revenue of the Community of Madrid and a member of IFEMA’s executive committee, and Carlos Soria and his expedition team.

This project is particularly significant due to IFEMA’s commitment to promote the image of Madrid, which is one of the main objectives of its strategy to benefit different sectors of the economy and business, and to broaden the city’s global reach.

The organisation is sponsoring the IFEMA CARLOS SORIA Dhaulagiri Expedition to further IFEMA's Corporate Social Responsibility objectives. This is the first time it has backed in this sport, although has close links with its business activity. The project revolves around Carlos Soria, who personifies all these values, and it will be an extraordinary communication tool for transmitting and associating the attributes that IFEMA seeks to promote by the nature of its operations, and its close ties with the companies and economic sectors represented at its trade fairs. Values like hard work, the determination to succeed, commitment, ambition to achieve new goals and objectives, and team work are all characteristics shared by the more than 33,000 companies that take part in IFEMA's trade fairs, something we intend to acknowledge and underline through this sponsorship arrangement.

It is significant that Carlos Soria will be facing this new challenge in Nepal, a place blessed with a wealth of natural beauty, since protecting and appreciation of natural resources is another aspect that matters to IFEMA, which is sponsoring this programme as part of the environmental arm of its corporate social responsibility objectives. In this context, it is worth mentioning the institution’s investments in renewable energy, which include the recently-commissioned geothermal power plant that supplies the central building at Feria de Madrid. 

This sponsorship has been launched in the framework of EXPOTURAL, the Mountain and Sustainable Tourism Fair, which will take place from 1 to 4 November whose guest of honour is Nepal. It is an ideal way to underline IFEMA’s decided commitment to sustainability, preventing climate change, and nature.  In fact, Carlos Soria has been named EXPOTURAL's ambassador because of the ideals that inspire him in his profession, and his deep respect for nature.

As well as the above, another of IFEMA’s main objectives converging in this sponsorship is its specific contribution to all types of tourism and, among them, Nature Tourism, which has a magnificent ambassador in the International Tourism Trade Fair, FITUR, a world leading event that generates wealth for Madrid and for Spain, not forgetting the extensive natural assets found in the Community of Madrid.

The Expedition

The IFEMA-CARLOS SORIA exhibition will set out to climb the Dhaulagiri (8,167m), the world’s seventh-highest mountain, and Shisha Pangma (8,021m), the remaining two of 14 peaks at over eight thousand metres high that he has yet to conquer.

The team will consist of exhibition leader and mountaineer Carlos Soria; cameraman and communication manager Luis López Soriano and supporting mountaineer Sito Carcavilla. A chef and eight sherpas will accompany them.

The two-phase exhibition will take place between March and May. The first phase will give the team a change to acclimatise to the altitudes they will have to endure during the ascent, and the second will be spent at the base camp and climbing to the peak.

The team will fly from Kathmandu to Khumbu for the first phase from 26 March to 15 April, where they will hike to ever-increasing altitudes for approximately 14 days until their bodies become accustomed. The route will take them through some of the world’s most spectacular mountains, like Ama Dablam, Lhotse, Nuptse and even Everest. They will hike to heights of around 6,000 metres during the acclimatization phase. Then they will fly back two Kathmandu.

After two days of rest, the second phase will begin, starting at the Dhaulagfiri base camp at a height of 4,650 m. Their strategy will be to ascend to camp 1 (5,500m) and then camp 2 (6,400m), to finish acclimatising and to set up both camps. From then on, they will attempt to conquer the peak, weather permitting.

Carlos Soria

Born in Avila on 5 February 1939, he is Spain’s most famous mountaineer. At the age of 79, he still has ambitions to climb the world’s 14 highest peaks, a project with great international importance and relevance, since he is the oldest person ever to take on this formidable challenge. He only has two peaks to go -  Dhaulagiri (Nepal) and Shisha Pangma (China) - to achieve his goal.

He is the only mountaineer to have climbed 11 eight-mile-high mountains at over the age of 60 and is the oldest person in history to have successfully climbed K2 (aged 65), Broad Peak (68 years), Makalu (69 years), (70 years), Manaslu (71 years), Kanchenjunga (75 years) and Annapurna (77 years).

He has also climbed the seven highest peaks on all seven continents, a feat he achieved when he was more than 70 years old: Elbrus (Europe-1968); McKinley (North America-1971); Aconcagua (South America -1986); Everest (Asia-2001); Mont Vinson (Antarctica - 2007); Carstensz (Oceania-2010) and Kilimanjaro (Africa-2010).

#Iclimbwithcarlossoria

The “I climb with Carlos Soria” social network profiles and the IFEMA website will host a microsite dedicated to the Expedition. Fans will be able to follow the challenge every day, with details of all their activities, graphic material and videos.

https://m.facebook.com/yosuboconcarlossoria/ 

Instagram: Iclimbwithcarlossoria 

YouTube: IClimbWithCarlosCoria

Twitter: @CarlosSoriaChallenge

 Press Contact

Marta Cacho Dalda, Head of Media Relations at IFEMA | mcacho@ifema.es