Doychin Vassilev in front of FACTS: The lighting of my eyes on Everest was a big personal drama

Our famous mountaineer Doichin Vassilev, also known as an Antarctic researcher and documentary filmmaker, celebrated his 80th birthday a few days ago. He was born in the village of Kumaritsa, today a district of Novi Iskar, Sofia municipality. He climbed three Himalayan eight-thousanders: Dhaulagiri (1995), Everest (1997) and Makalu (1998). Doichin Vassilev participated in three national expeditions in the Himalayas - Lhotse, 1981, Everest, 1984 and Annapurna, 1989. He also took part in private expeditions in the Himalayas: Dhaulagiri, 1995, Everest, 1997, Makalu , pre-monsoon 1998, Manaslu, post-monsoon 1998, Shisha Pangma, pre-monsoon 1999, Cho Oyu, pre-monsoon 1999 and Manaslu, 2009. Here's what he shared about his passion… Doichin Vassilev in front of FACTS.

- Mr. Vassilev, you recently turned 80 years old (on June 12). Stay alive and healthy for a long time. At your age, a person has what and how to make a brief assessment. A person of this age certainly has many reasons to look back. And looking back what you see…
- Looking back, I wonder if I did it all or not. These peaks that I have climbed, I have taken such difficult routes, the peaks are far from each other… Did I do all this!

- When a person is left alone with himself at the top, what does he think about?
- In what condition is he in. If he is physically fit and has no problems returning from the given peak, there is nothing to worry about. Then all this ends with a great satisfaction.

- The thought of going down… How strong she is. When you climb you have a goal, and then…
- Descending a mountain is more difficult than climbing it. The point is that one loses a lot of strength during the ascent. And then, during the descent, those forces that he lost, he needs, but they are missing. Therefore, forces must be well distributed.

- You are 80 years old, but I can't help but take you back to that climb 40 years ago to Mount Everest – the first. What was the ambition when you went there - for everyone to climb or for everyone to go up according to their strength?
- In general, we did not have a good planning of the expedition, and everything was done, as we like to say in Bulgaria - on the fly. And the equipment was selected like that, and an organization was directed so that one person could climb - and that was Hristo Prodanov.

- Everyone else worked for him…
- We talked to each other, and in the public opinion this opinion prevailed that a Bulgarian should go up. And that was Hristo Prodanov. And this is the reason why in the Base Camp I asked the leader Avram Avramov uncomfortable questions, namely that the expedition is subordinated to Hristo climbing the summit. So a conflict situation arose and he kicked me out of the expedition. But after a day or two - like eating onions, smelling onions, he gave me the opportunity to climb the peak as a last link, for which I am grateful, but, as they say, kel fayda.

- In this expedition, you burn your eyes and thus fail to reach the top. How did you experience this moment…
- It was a big personal drama. Everest was moving away. The bad thing was that it was all about pain because I had severe conjunctivitis in my eyes. It's like someone putting sand in your eye and rubbing it. No viewing. I tried to walk one day, walked 5 meters along the edge with Slavi and came back because I might fall.

- But this did not diminish your ambition to conquer peaks. Do this many times after that?
- So it happened. Then came democracy in Bulgaria, things changed. I had the opportunity to travel with my own money, to pay for the expeditions. What the state used to do – in government expeditions, then I did it myself, but it gave me pleasure. To conduct an expedition, it is a very delicate job. So many things can change, so many things can change, lose some gear or something. But I managed, I didn't give up.

- How do you see the commercialization of high altitude tourism? A third Bulgarian soon – Marieta Georgieva, conquered Everest…
- Look, things have become very commercialized. It even became offensive. It is not possible for a team of 80 people to climb the summit today, since in the 1950s and 1960s almost every expedition to Everest always ended in failure. Today, this is already the development of alpinism, this is how things develop, towards better and better technique, equipment, which incredibly leads to new horizons for human possibilities.

- How much does such an expedition cost to include a person?
- In 1984, we paid 1,000 dollars per person. After a few years, the fee became $10,000 per person. Today you need $50,000-$60,000. It became a question of money.

- But the road along the Western ridge remains Bulgarian…
- No one mentioned this about the Western Ridge in Bulgaria, because it was not allowed to talk about the west, about the Western Ridge. He was talked about when the route we were going was understood. You can go up on the West ridge, and then the plan was to go down on the other side of the peak. In general, things are like this on the West Ridge - if you climb the top, you will live and come down the other side. If you don't upload it, that's your problem.

- Unfortunately, Hristo Prodanov remained the first Bulgarian…
- Hristo stayed, but several times I even thought that he did it on purpose. He chased achievements, but left his rucksack and pike. Hristo said that it was too bad that there were no railings, but he should have made these railings, and he did not.