Rocío Monteoliva is from Granada, has a degree in Translation and Interpreting (English and German) from the University of Granada and is a High and Medium Mountain sports technician. In addition, she is a snow science and self-rescue technician (CAG2), an official snow science instructor for ACNA, a guide for the Sierra Nevada National Park (CENEAM), an official tourism guide, a guide in extreme conditions (WGA), a lifeguard and instructor of trainers in SVB and CPR, an alpine skiing instructor since 1999, a member of the teaching staff at the EAAM-FAM since 2019, and has been responsible for the Mountain Skiing Committee of the FAM for three seasons (2017 and 2019). Among her achievements, she was the first woman to ski down the North Face of Mulhacén and holds the title of High-Performance Athlete in Mountaineering (for mountain skiing and climbing).

A deep-sea skipper, with a degree in Chemistry and a technical degree in Naval Mechanics, she has been the manager of Bigboy Náutica since 2009. It provides nautical, rigging and charter qualifications. As a sailor, she has participated in major projects such as the ‘Estrella Galicia’, Admiral’s Cup, Commodores Cup, Middle Sea Race, 200 Miglia di Lignano… “For me, it is an honor to have been chosen as the director of the Reto Pelayo Vida and to lead these five brave women to the Arctic Circle. Just seeing the vitality they have is already an example for everyone”
says Pilar.

A Spanish climber born in Asturias in 1960. She has summited 6 of the 14 eight-thousanders, including Mount Everest. To date, she is the only Spanish woman to complete the 7 Summits Project, climbing the highest mountains on all continents (Europe, Africa, Asia, North America, South America, Oceania and Antarctica). The mountain ranges of the Andes, Himalayas, Pyrenees, Caucasus, Alps and the Karakoram have been the setting of this mountaineer’s expeditions for two decades. In 2015, she was an expedition member in the first edition of the Pelayo Vida Challenge, with Kilimanjaro as its destination.

All in all, he has lived six years in the Arctic and speaks some Inuit language fluently. He is undoubtedly the Spaniard who knows the Arctic best, especially Greenland, where he owns a house. In addition to his expeditions, Ramón is passionate about knowledge and dissemination about the polar regions and boasts the best library in Spain on the subject, compiled over more than twenty years and made available to the public through the Polar Information Centre, which he founded in 1993.

A former Real Madrid basketball player, his first contact with the mountains took place in the Dolomites in 2001, when he was still a professional basketball player. It was love at first sight, and he knew from that moment on that his life would be linked to them forever. He felt like they were hiding something different and special and he wanted to find out what it was.