site.btaJuly 22, 2017: Mountaineer Boyan Petrov Becomes First Bulgarian to Have Scaled 9 Eight-Thousanders

On July 22, 2017, mountaineer Boyan Petrov scaled Gasherbrum II, becoming the first Bulgarian to have scaled nine eight-thousanders. Petrov, a diabetic and cancer survivor, made the climb only 11 months after he was severely injured in a road accident. He made all nine climbs without supplementary oxygen.

On September 30 that same year, the speleologist with the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences scaled his tenth eight-thousander, Dhaulagiri I, the seventh highest mountain in the world. It was last scaled by Bulgarians exactly 20 years earlier.

There are a total of 14 eight-thousanders on Earth. Petov hoped to scale all of them in a project he had entitled A Bulgarian at 14x8,000.   

On May 3, 2018, Petrov was reported missing while attempting to reach Shishapangma (8,027 m), the 14th highest mountain in the world, in the Tibet Autonomous Region. He was part of an eleven-strong expedition also consisting of a Hungarian climber, five Italians and four Nepalese guides. His absence was noticed at an altitude of about 7,500 m.

A large-scale search and rescue operation was organized, in which Chinese mountaineers, Sherpa mountain guides, and Nepalese helicopters took part. Despite the efforts, Petrov was not found.