Carlos Soria is a 76-year old mountaineer born in Spain,
and all over the world, the only one who has been capable of
conquering, with an age above 60 years, eleven out of the
fourteen eight-thounsanders of the earth. These achievements
are part of a fascinating and ambitious adventure into the limits
of human resistance to extreme environmental conditions at
advanced ages, the ultimate goal of which is to successfully
fulfill, before his 80s, the ascent to all of these world’s highest
mountains. We compared here the cortisol awakening response,
which is thought of as an abrupt psychologically-driven rise
in cortisol in anticipation of the demands of the upcoming
day, in his climbing team at high altitude (more than 5000 m)
and a control group at sea level in the Sunshine Coast. Results
show that, relative to resting days, the foreigner mountaineer
group has a bigger cortisol awakening response in those days implying the ascension of a novel and difficult track. Moreover,
this cortisol awakening response positively correlates with fearbased
emotions and anticipation of a hard day.
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