Makalu Adventure organizes the record breaking helicopter search and rescue mission for the world renowned Bulgarian Mountaineer Mr. Boyan Petrov.
In a rare turn of events in the world mountaineering history, Makalu Adventure organizes one of the most unprecedented helicopter search and rescue mission for the world renowned Bulgarian Mountaineer Mr. Boyan Petrov who went missing on Mt. Shishapangma, 8,027 metres (26,335 ft) in China (Tibet) in May of 2018.
Mr. Petrov, went missing in the mountain on 3rd May 2018, during his solo attempt to Mt. Shishapangma. Mr. Petrov was last seen on camp 3 from the base camp telescope on 5th May who subsequently disappeared from the scene thereafter. The accompanying climbers did all they could to locate Mr. Petrov in the mountain but without any success and had often to backtrack from going up due to the worsening weather conditions in the mountain that followed for a number of days, making the ground search work virtually impossible.
As soon as the news of Mr. Petrov going missing hit the press and resonated throughout the world mountaineering community, a swift and most effective search and rescue mission was immediately called for; both from the organizer as well as from the concerned government authorities including Bulgaria, Nepal and China. Given the nature of such a difficult search and rescue work, involving transnational cooperation between the different government(s) and in line agencies trying to respond to the imminent danger Mr. Petrov was in, Makalu Adventure did all it could to facilitate the organization of Nepalese Choppers to be flown into China with the kind and historic permission from the government of the People’s Republic of China; with the Bulgarian government consistently maintaining the close diplomatic ties with the Beijing official and thus securing the unprecedented access and permission to execute the search work and allowing to do anything that was needed to safely bring Mr. Pertov back from the mountain alive.
Mr. Mohan Lamsal, the managing director of Makalu Adventure who unwaveringly coordinated the search mission with Nepal based Simrik Air, in close cooperation with the Bulgarian officials who had arrived in Kathmandu to assist the search mission, points out that this was evidently one of the rarest rescue mission ever organized in the mountaineering history, involving the Nepalese choppers to flying into China (with the kind permission from the government of People’s republic of China - PRC) which required flying over 8000 meters to try locating the missing climber.
Mr. Petrov was reported to have headed one day before the rest of team to summit the Chinese peak without the use of oxygen, satellite phone, mountain guide, fixed rope and climbing Sherpa. He had refused to use any kids of assisted climbing and thus decided to make a summit bit fully unaided.
Mr. Lamsal, expressed his deep gratitude to all those involved in the search mission and in particular to the Honorable Prime Minister of Bulgaria, Boyko Borisov, Government of China, Her Excellency Yu Hong, the Chinese Ambassador of the PRC to Nepal, His Excellency the Bulgarian Ambassador to China, Mr. Plamen Shukyurliev. It was overwhelming to see everyone involved in the search mission going out of their way in making the rescue mission successful in every account.
The Chinese authorities in particular were very cooperative in granting the permission to the Nepalese Choppers to fly into China (Tibet), and assured every possible assistant that would be required for the successful rescue mission. Mr. Lamsal expressed his sincere gratitude to all those involved in the search mission including the Simrik Air crew, who despite the difficult terrain and unfavourable weather condition pushed ahead the rescue flights. Mr. Lamsal also extended his thanks and gratitude to the ground search team including the climbing guides, assistants etc.
Makalu Adventure family extends its heartfelt condolences to Mr. Petrov’s family on his untimely demise and prays for his soul to rest in eternal peace. May God grant his family the strength to recover from this tragic loss. Mr. Petrov undoubtedly was a legendary climber with the zest to transcend all the mighty mountain on earth, whose darubg footprints are vividly laid out in his book called the “The First Seven” published on February, 2017 !
