Atanas Skatov Climbed his Ninth Eight-Thousander and Is Looking Forward to the "Crown of the Himalaya"

That night at 4:09 am Bulgarian time the alpinist Atanas Skatov climbed to the 13th highest peak of the planet - Gasherbrum 2.

Gasherbrum 2, surveyed as K4, is the 13th highest mountain in the world at 8,035 metres above sea level. It is the third-highest peak of the Gasherbrum massif, and is located in the Karakoram, on the border between Gilgit-Baltistan province, Pakistan, and Xinjiang, China.

Thus, season 2019 became the strongest one for Skatov, after he had climbed three eight-thousandths over the past two months.

With this achievement, Skatov is getting closer to the so called Himalayan crown - a distinction that is given to climbers who have reached the 14 highest summits of the planet, with a height of over 8,000 m.

So far, no other Bulgarian has had such an achievement, BNT reported.

On May 15, the Bulgarian managed to climb Kangchenjunga, the third highest peak on the planet with an elevation of 8,586 m. On July 12, he stepped on the Gasherbrum 1 (8080 meters) and only after 2 days of resting in a base camp (5050 meters) headed to the ninth in his eight-thousand-meter peak Gasherbrum 2.

With this achievement he became the first Bulgarian to be able to climb the Gesherbrum 1 and 2 peaks in one season and for a record time of 6 days.

Overcoming this peak is part of the project to climb the planet's 14 eight-thousanders that Skatov started in 2015.

For 5 years since then, this is his ninth successful peak, which he added to the already climbing summits - Manaslu (2015), Mount Annapurna 1, Makalu (2016), Lhotse and Everest (2017), Cho Oyu (2018) Kangchenjunga and Gasherbrum 1 (2019).

Until the completion of the project, Skatov needs to climb Nanga Parbat Peak, Broad Peak, Shishapangma, K2 Peak...