Boyan Petrov

Boyan Petrov (Bulgarian: Боян Петров, born 7 February 1973) is a Bulgarian zoologist and mountaineer, working at the National Museum of Natural History in Sofia. As of July 2016, he has climbed 8 eight-thousanders, all without supplementary oxygen. This achievement makes him Bulgarian altitude climber with the highest number of peaks over 8000 meters. On 20 May 2014 he became the first Bulgarian to climb the third highest peak on Earth Kangchenjunga (8586m), as well as the first diabetic to climb such an altitude and without oxygen. On 23 July he climbed Broad Peak (8047m). On 31 July 2014 he became the first Bulgarian to climb the second highest peak on the planet K2 (8611m), which also made him the 35th person to climb three eight thousanders in less than 100 days. His double climb – on Broad Peak and K2 in 8 days, is also a world record. For these remarkable successes the Bulgarian climber was greeted with a video message by mountaineering legend Reinhold Messner. His documentary film about his climbs "3x8000" was broadcast on Bulgarian National Television in December 2014. Boyan Petrov is a cancer survivor and a diabetic. In 2008 he fell while climbing in the Alps and broke his leg. During the descent of Gasherbrum II in 2009 fell in a glacial crevasse and was saved by a group of Spanish climbers. In 2013 Petrov suffered a car accident and received a new fracture on one of his legs. Despite of that the following year he successfully climbed Kangchenjunga, Broad Peak and K2 with internal fixators in this leg. After the descent of K2 got a serious hypoglycemic crisis while in base camp, lost consciousness and was able to recover with the help of Polish climbers.