Boyan Petrov some weeks ago in Kathmandu

The most successful Bulgarian high altitude climber, Boyan Petrov, has been missing for several days on the eight-thousander Shishapangma in Tibet. This was confirmed today by his partner Radoslava Nenova on Facebook. According to her, a search for Petrov is to begin tomorrow. Previously, the team of the Hungarian climber David Klein reported that the 45-year-old Bulgarian had set off on 29 April for a solo attempt without bottled oxygen. On 3 May, last Thursday, Petrov was seen from base camp by telescope at the level of Camp 3. On Saturday, an Ukrainian and three Sherpas reached Camp 3 at about 7,400 meters and found Boyan’s semi-open tent with his sleeping bag, covered in snow. Obviously, Petrov had left for the summit.

Ten eight-thousanders without breathing mask

Shishapangma

Petrov wished to scale his eleventh eight-thousander, the 8,027-meter-high Shishapangma, like the ten others before without breathing mask. Subsequently he wanted to move on to Everest. In the past two years alone, Boyan had succeeded five summit successes on the highest mountains in the world: In 2016 on Annapurna, Makalu and Nanga Parbat, in 2017 on Gasherbrum II and Dhaulagiri. Petrov works as a zoologist at the National Museum of Natural History in the Bulgarian capital Sofia and is a specialist in wildlife in caves. The climber has survived cancer two times. As a result of chemotherapy, Boyan has been suffering from diabetes for 18 years.

Summit of Everest seen from the north side

Ralf Dujmovits is close to his big goal. In his eighth attempt, the 55-year-old finally wants to scale Mount Everest without bottled oxygen. Ralf is only about eight hours of ascent away from the highest point on earth at 8,850 meters – if everything goes well. Today Dujmovits, according to his life partner Nancy Hansen, reached Camp 3 on the Tibetan normal route at 8,300 meters, from where he called her by satellite phone. There had been a thunderstorm for the last hour, Ralf told the Canadian. It had taken him five hours to climb the 600 vertical meters from Camp 2. “He feels a little tired, but he sounds very alert and normal,” Nancy wrote on Facebook. “He will drink a lot now, rest a few hours, and leave for the summit at 1am Nepali time (1.15 pm Friday in Canada, 9.15 pm Friday in Germany).”

Little wind expected on the summit day

The weather forecast predicts for Saturday morning little wind and light snowfall, at temperatures around minus 25 degrees Celsius. In the afternoon heavier snowfall is expected. Dujmovits is the so far only German who has summited all 14 eight-thousanders. Only on Everest in fall 1992, he had used a breathing mask above the South Col due to bad weather – a fact he is still regretting. The current Everest attempt without bottled oxygen will be, as Ralf told me before the departure, his “definitely last”. I keep my fingers crossed.

Mask to moisturize the air

Special mask

The Americans Adrian Ballinger and Cory Richards also reached Camp 3 on the north side without supplemental oxygen. “It was hard getting here. I’m scared now,” Adrian wrote on Instagram. In the picture he attached, Ballinger is wearing a mask which, in his own words, “warms and moisturizes the air we breathe up here”.

Latorre and Co. on the South Col

Sangay, Wenzl, Latorre, Graziani (from l. to r.)

On the south side of Everest too, the summit attempts of climbers, who are not using bottled oxygen, are right on schedule. The Spaniard Ferran Latorre, the Frenchman Yannick Graziani and the Austrian Hans Wenzl reached the South Col at 7,950 meters. They are accompanied by Sherpa Dawa Sangay. A short video, which Ferran posted on Twitter, shows strong gusts and snowfall. This was also reported by the Frenchwoman Elisabeth Revol, who climbed today from Camp 2 at 6,400 meters up to the South Col.

Klein turned around

The today still adverse weather conditions stopped the summit attempt of the Hungarian David Klein, who had climbed up – as I was informed only yesterday – from the south side without breathing mask. At about 8,100 meters, David and two Sherpas, who should film him, turned around because the wind was too strong. It was David’s ninth Everest attempt without supplemental oxygen. In his most successful one in 2014, the Hungarian had reached an altitude of 8,650 meters on the north side.

First balance

Even though a few commercial teams are still on the mountain, the Nepalese authorities have already drawn a first balance of the spring season on Everest. According to the Ministry of Tourism in Kathmandu, more than 450 people, ascending from the south, have so far reached the summit, including about 200 foreign climbers from 29 countries.

Top of Everest (from the Northeast Ridge)

The first climbers came from the south. On Friday evening local time, the Chinese Wang Jing and five Sherpas reached the summit of Mount Everest via the Nepalese normal route. However, I hesitate to call it a complete ascent. The team had been flown by helicopter to Camp 2 at 6400 meters after the “Ice doctors” had stopped to maintain the route through the Khumbu Icefall. After the avalanche disaster on 18 April – as reported – all commercial expeditions on the Nepalese side of the mountain had been cancelled.

Today the first summit successes were also reported from the Tibetan north side. A team of 15 climbers of the Russian expedition organizer “7SummitsClub” reached the highest point at 8850 meters during snowfall and wind. The German climber Ralf Dujmovits had to struggle with these difficult weather conditions  too when he ascended from Camp 2 at 7700 meters to Camp 3 at 8300 meters.

Really exhausted

“In the morning it was very windy, then it began to snow”, Ralf tells me by satellite phone from his small tent. He is speaking slowly, the thin air takes its toll. He was fine all the way up to Camp 3, says Ralf: “I was hoping to find a platform for my tent up here at 8300 meters, but unfortunately it wasn’t like that. I had to prepare a platform before I could pitch my tent. Thus I have lost much energy and right now I am really exhausted.” Dujmovits, who is climbing without bottled oxygen, does not want to leave for the summit with the first  mountaineers late on Saturday night. “This is too tricky, because it is still too cold. Probably I will start at 1:00 or 2:00 a.m., but it depends on the wind.” So keep your fingers crossed!

Hungarian Klein turned around

Another climber who had tried to scale Mount Everest without oxygen mask  has aborted his summit attempt. The Hungarian David Klein turned around on the northeast ridge, at an altitude of about 8600 meters, near the First Step. He was too late. The Romanian Horia Colibaseanu and the Slovak Peter Hámor, also without bottled oxygen, had previously stopped their ascent at 7600 meters.