Everest West Ridge and Traverse. The Bulgarian Everest Expedition was organized to honor the 40th anniversary of the Bulgarian socialist revolution and the 80th anniversary of the foundation of the Bulgarian Revolutionary Trade Unions. It consisted of Avram Avramov, leader, Christo Prodanov, deputy leader, Ognyan Baldjiyski, Dr. Stayko Kulaksazov, Stefan Kalayanov, Metodi Savov, Milan Milanov, Dimitar Bardarev, Slavi Dermandjiev, Trifon Djambazov, Kantcho Dolapchiev, Kiril Doskov, Todor Grigorov, Lyubomir Iliev, Georgi Imov, Kostas Kanidis, Zapryan Khorozov, Nikolay Petkov, Stamen Stanimorov, Dinyo Tomov, Petko Totev, Ivan Valtchev, Doychin Vasilev and Lyudmil Yankov. An advance group led by Prodanov of five Bulgarians, three Sherpas and 40 porters arrived at Base Camp at 5350 meters on March 12 and on the 13th they climbed to the Lho La, where they found the winch of the 1983 autumn American expedition. It was effective and was used even after a Bulgarian winch was erected. The whole team reached Base Camp on March 18. A particularly dry winter with little snow eased the work of establishing camps and eliminated avalanche danger. Camp I was established at 6050 meters on March 21, Camp II at 6770 meters on March 27 and Camp III at 7170 meters on April 3. Because of gale winds, they dug a snow cave for 15 at Camp II and for six at Camp III. After some days of bad weather, on April 5, two teams of seven Bulgarians and seven Sherpas set out. On April 18 Prodanov and Sherpa Chowang Rinzi established Camp IV at 7520 meters. On the following day at 2:30 P.M. they got to the site of Camp V at 8120 meters and set up camp. Djambazov, Kanidis and Tomov completed the establishment of Camp IV and remained there to sleep. April 20 was splendid but cold. At 5:45 A.M. Prodanov and Cho-wang Rinzi started for the summit without oxygen. The Sherpa felt the technical difficulties were too great and returned to Camp IV. Prodanov, who had made many fine solo climbs, including Lhotse, continued alone. At 11:10 he radioed Base Camp and said he was at 8500 meters. At 6:10 P.M. he called a second time to announce that he had reached the summit where he found a pyramid of empty oxygen bottles left by the Soviet mountaineers and the Red Flag. He tore a small fragment off the flag and like the first Russian climbers, he left his 8-mm camera to be used by the teams who would climb later to the summit. He was the sixth man to climb Everest solo [if Mick Burke actually made it—Editor], the 13th without oxygen and the eighth to climb the west ridge. He remained on the summit for a half hour and began the descent down the west ridge proper, which had not been done before. At 9:10 P.M. he contacted Base Camp and said he would bivouac because of darkness. The following day, April 21, a rescue began. Yankov reached 8500 meters in the dark at nine P.M. but did not find any trace of Prodanov. Until 5:30 P.M. that same day Prodanov had voice contact with Base Camp although his voice was weak and the words could not be understood. At 7:45 a click of the switch of his walkie-talkie was recorded for the last time. No sign of him was ever heard again. Meanwhile the weather worsened. Yankov had to spend a sleepless night at 8400 meters but returned safe to Base Camp. On the following days bad weather kept the climbers in their tents. On May 1 in sunny weather a new attack began. Camps IV and V had been destroyed but were reestablished. On May 8 Savov and Valtchev started at 3:20 A.M. from Camp V with oxygen, finding a foot- and-a-half of new snow in the gullies. In the afternoon the summit had begun to “smoke,” a sign of worsening weather. At 5:15 they were on the summit. After 23 minutes they began to descend the southeast ridge. Two hours later, at 8700 meters, they decided to bivouac. On May 9 Doskov and Petkov left camp V and in the record time of 7 hours 38 minutes were on the summit. They took Prodanov s camera and the Soviet flag and hastened to descend the southeast ridge. Soon they met the Indian mountaineer, Phu Dorje, who climbed alone to the top after the two Sherpas who had accompanied him quit. They then met Savov and later Valtchev and with the help of Doskov and Petkov, the two climbers who had bivouacked succeeded in reaching the South Col. Thus, four Bulgarians performed the second traverse of Everest up the west ridge and down the southeast. Their route was partially new since they had climbed the west ridge proper and not the Hornbein Couloir. This traverse would have been impossible with-out the generous help of the Indian expedition on the normal route, which offered tents, oxygen, food and even medicine. Savov suffered frostbite and was evacuated from Base Camp. Valtchev healed in the Indian camps and Base Camp and suffered no serious consequences.

Svetoslav Kolev, Bulgarian Mountaineering Federation