The biggest
challenge is to climb on something higher than the rock leaded me on
Broad Peak,says Boyan Petrov, alpinist and biologist at the National Natural museum in Sofia
by Aida PANIKYAN
In 2002 Bulgaria was going to be proud of the first Bulgarian
mountaineers who were to climb up the hardest peak K2 (8 611) but there
was a problem with the money and insecurity situation in this Asia
region as well. A team of Bulgarian climbers, led by Nikolay Petkov,
attempted Broad Peak last season, aimed even higher and was going to do
a K2 expedition in 2002. Boyan Petrov was one of the participants of
that expedition. The young mountaineer, climber and caver is graduated
in the University St. Kliment Ohridski in Sofia as a biologist.
Now he
works as an biology expert for the National Natural Museum in
Sofia.
The young scientist brought huge number of different invertebrates from
Broad Peak.
All of them now are in the National Natural Museum. Three of these
sorts
are discovered from Boyan and they are unique. The biologists probably
will
give to some of them Boyans name. In 1988 the Director of Museum Petar
Beron brought invertebrates from the northwards at the foot of
K2 and Boyans collection is from the southwards. I heard about Boyan from his physician the endocrinologist Vesselin Demirtchev. One year after the expedition the doctor still was surprised from Boyans step. The young man is a diabetic since 1999 and he must to inject 4 times a day insulin Humulin and Humalog. As a biologist he often have to travel over the country. There's no reason you can't travel if you have diabetes - the key is to make sure that you're well-preparedDuring the expedition the preservation of the insulin was my biggest problem. Of course the conditions of life were very difficult, my treatment too. But I handled it because the insulin was with good quality and I used it during whole my 3-mounth tripEven the doctor of the team - Stayko Kulaksasov (that was his 23rd expedition), long time didnt know that among the alpinists there is a diabetic. I didnt afraid about my health, I was only ly upset about the insulins preservation, says Boyan.
Mountain climbers are people who take risks because of the win. A real challenge for the young alpinist was to demonstrate that he can climb up to 8 000 m without any problem. Boyans conquest and victory is that he gave a proof that diabetics are normal people, not invalids. Boyan is rock climber since in 1991. But his story begins quite earlier - as a schoolboy he was a speleologist. After that passion came another one the alpinism. In the caves it is dark and there you can see only a small world not very well illuminated. From the peak, when you make a summit, you can see the real world. To the rock climbing led me the thrill to get on the something higher than a rock, says Boyan.
On June 14 2001 Boyan and Doychin Boyanov, Stanimir Zhelyazkov, Penko Raykov and Dimitar Raykov have arrived by the expedition truck in the Bulgarian embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan. From the Bulgarian capital Sofia to Islamabad they traveled more than 7 days. The journey through the desert was very hard during the day the temperature reached up to 47 C. Then I kept very careful the insulin - in special thermo-boxes, says Boyan. Two days latter the rest of the participants in the expedition and the trekking group left from Sofia airport via Dubai to Islamabad. On June 22 starts the trekking to the base camp Camp 3 is on altitude 7 100 m. On July 8-9 Bulgarian newspapers wrote: All the participants are well. In the dairy of expedition is written 25 July 2001 - in camp 3 (7100 ) are Nikolay Petkov, Ivan Pavlov, Mihail Krastev, Boyan Petrov and Doychin Boyanov. They will attack the top tomorrow25 July 2001 Nikolay Petkov, Ivan Pavlov, Mihail Krastev, Boyan Petrov and Doychin Boyanov are waiting for a good weather in camp 3 (7100 m). They spent there 4 days. When it was 30 C, I kept the insulin in my bosom. Everything with my insulin was all right. My health too, says Boyan.
In the same time the climbers Gospodin Dinev, Petco Totov, and Stanimir Gelvazcov reached the summit of Broad Peak. They reached the summit after a 12 hour ascent on the hard snow directly from C3 (they completely skipped C4!). On the summit they were together with two Americans. 22 July 2001 At 11,40 Gospodin Dinev climbed up Mount Broad Peak /8047m/. (That was the second 8000-peak for Gospodin on 23 July 1992 he climbed Gasherbrum II (8035), Karakorum, Pakistan). He found there the Chinese and Argentinean flags on the top. At 17,00 he was back in camp 3. A few days latter the group have made an attempt of climbing the top but because of the new snow of 30 sm. they went back to camp 3. The night they spent again in that camp. The day latter Nikolay, Doychin, Boyan, Ivan and Misho are in the base camp. Because of the terrible weather and the new snow they staid in the BC on 4 700 m. All of the climbers are in a very good condition is written in expeditions dairy Boyan was also ok
Rock climbing and mountaineering have old traditions in Bulgaria. The beginning is about a century ago, when the real exploration of the Alpine-type mountains started. Since then, Bulgarian mountaineers have climbed all peaks in the world, exceeding 8000 m., including the Top of the World - Everest.
Few people know about Boyan. Even the employees from Bulgarinan office of Eli Lilly & Company didnt know about him until recently. The most important thing is the sensation to clamb off the reel escarpment metre after metre, to climb up to the summit and to be the first one person on that peakthats the reason to be a mountaineer, says Boyan.
