Boyan Petrov has successfully summited Annapurna on his second attempt. The first attempt in mid-April had to be cut due to extremely strong winds.
"I am extremely happy to be known that my client as well as my friend BOYAN PETROV of Bulgaria made Annapurna-I summit today. Our Carlos Soria team and other climbers are heading up this evening." Pemba Sherpa wrote in a Facebook message.
With Annapurna on the list, Boyan is the first Bulgarian to have climbed 7x8000ers along with K2, Kangchenjunga, Broad Peak, Manaslu, Gasherbrum-1 and Gasherbrum-2 (many of which are first Bulgarian ascends).
On the night of April 30th, three climbers launched the summit-bid. Russians left the tent at around 2:30am, while Boyan delayed his departure till 03:45am. Nonetheless, an hour into ascent, Boyan moved ahead of fellow climbers. Continuing the solo ascent in good sunny weather, Boyan says, he reached the base of couloir that leads to summit at around 1200hrs local time. The Bulgarian climber estimated to reach the top within one hour. However, the couloir inclined at 50 degrees was full of deep, drifting snow. It took him two hours to overcome the section.
By the time he reached summit crest, clouds were closing in. Boyan quickly turned left to reach the true summit. "Snow floated everywhere, didn't have any view towards south (due to clouds), but in north, had some visibility to our BC.", says Boyan
