Jesús Calleja is, surely, one of the most famous adventurers in Spain. Or at least one of the most media. Now he faces the one who is possibly the greatest challenge of his life: externala trip that makes with the company Blue Originaboard the New Shepard spacecraft. As has been repeated on countless occasions, it becomes thus THE THIRD SPANISH IN HISTORY in traveling to space after Miguel López-Elegría and Pedro Duque, so that he can add a more milestone to their long recourse and superhuman goals.
As a child, mountaineer. Calleja’s first vocation was Montañero, in love with the stories that his father read him About expeditions to Everest or Antarctica. After heating at the Naranjo de Bulnes, he visited the Himalaya with 21 years, where – as later in the Alps – he became a guide. He has come to travel more than 60 times to Nepal, and everything he won as a guide invested in other aspects of his adventurous life, such as learning to pilot planes. With 37 years he left his work as a hairdresser to devote himself to the mountain.
To climb. In this period, at the beginning of the century, he climbed his first eight -meter peak (there is only fourteen on the planet, all in the Himalayas and Karakórum mountain ranges), the choc oyu. Already then had a certain media profile: he crowned a virgin mountain of 6000 meters in the Indian Tibet, baptized it ‘Madrid for Peace’ in tribute to the victims of 11-M and broadcast it in real time by its website. In 2005, with the sponsorship of several official agencies, He went up to Everestbecoming the first Spaniard to achieve it by the southern face.
More media turns. Descending from Everest he had an idea: chaining adventures could also chain sponsorships, and thus set up a project in which he would climb the Seven summits (The highest of each continent), crown some eight thousand more, go to the north pole and participate in two rallies: that of the pharaohs and the Paris-Dakar. All in two years and recording it with its own camera. In 2007 (remember, only two years after climbing Everest and becoming a celebrity of the world of adventure in Spain), four bought it ‘Extreme challenge‘, program that would enjoy seven seasons, and starting a relationship between adventurer and channel that lasts until today.
Many more adventures. Pure mountaineering simply became an ingredient more of its many expeditions. In 2009 he traveled to Iceland to visit the three most active volcanoes of the place (And Eyjafjalajökull erupted when they were there), he finally participated in the Dakar, practiced in depth, immersed himself in glacial waters in areas with sharks (many of these practices with the diving instructor María March) … his fame On television it was increasingly remarkable and challenged ‘Challenge in Himalaya’, ‘Vertical Challenge’, ‘Evrest Challenge, and’ Challenge to the abyss’, in format reality and with anonymous adventurers.
The stardom of adventure. The turn to what we could call the mainstream of the adventure was given in the period that began in 2014 with ‘Calleja Planet‘, where he undertakes adventure challenges accompanied by celebrities of all kinds, such as José Mota, Pedro Sánchez, Edurne, Elsa Pataky and Chris Hemsworth and many others, until reaching the 12 seasons they currently carry. Next to this he has shot the quietest ‘flying I go’, where he claims rural spaces of the Emptied Spain.
And finally, to space. Jesús Calleja becomes the first non -astronaut Spaniard (that is, a Space tourist) in going to space, in a project that has included a Documentary series about its preparation (issued by Prime Video), and in which Mediaset, Amazon and Zanskar, the Calleja producer themselves. The whole process has been well registeredbut perhaps one of the most relevant aspects of this new adventure, which is now coming out as planned, is in the media relevance that Calleja now acquires.
The common astronaut. The image that is projecting is exactly the real one: an common person who, thanks to The tourist touristificationmanage to travel to space. But beyond what that means for the aerospace sector, it is also the culmination of a certain line of the Calleja race, which from the internet broadcast of its first adventure was spectacularizing the risk and, thanks to its accessible and tremendously Sympathetic for the average television spectator, everyday life adventure.
Before the influencers, Calleja was. Jesús Calleja began late his life as a serious adventurer, with no less than 37 years. Even so, your spirit can be fully identified with that of the current Influencers of adventure: people who like to expose themselves to risks and challenges as varied as possible so as not to bore their audience, and with projects completely mediated by the possibility of making them public: if they cannot film them, they do not exist. From that point of view, the next logical step was to travel to space, but it is an adventure that they could not face Influencers Younger and famous, so for the moment, television, its massive and deep impact of their pockets win the battle.
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