| I had the rare chance to go on a night hike together with two Everest summiteers - Nikolai Petkov (who summited Everest twice, in 1984 by the West ridge and 2004 by the North ridge) and Dojchin Bojanov (who summited in 2004 by the North ridge without supplemental oxygen).
There was pretty strong wind, especially on the ridge. The snow was soft but not too deep. At some point I stopped to change my trekking poles with an ice axe and I was left some 40-50 meters behind. When I got to Eleni peak Nikolai Petkov and Dojchin Bojanov were getting back from Maljovica and I decided to descend with them. It was close, a matter of about 80 vertical meters (considering the 700 vertical meters before that, from the hut (+250 from the Central Mountaineering School)). All in all I don't regret too much that I didn't summit, being one step behind two of the finest Bulgarian (and world-class) climbers is good enough for me! |
