Here is my report for the summit(s), which I climbed this summer in the Pakistani Karakoram.
I was a member of a four-man Bulgarian team, which was part of a larger group of climbers outfitted by Jasmine Tours of Pakistan. We started from Sofia on June 15th and reached Gasherbrum Base Camp on June 28, 2009.

Gasherbrum-1 (June 28th – July 26th)

In about 20 days, the Bulgarian team established Camp 1 (5960m), Camp 2 (6500m) and C3 (7000m). We broke the first trails for this season on G1 together with the Finnish mountaineer Veikka Gustafsson (13 summits 8000x!) and his Japanese partner Kazuya Hiraide. The most difficult part of the climb was to fix new lines and establish the route through the Japanese couloir, which took us two days. Our first summit attempt was on July 18th and failed due to high winds above 7200m. The next push started on July 23rd from BC in bad weather. In the early morning of July 18th all six of us left Camp 3. I was the last to leave the camp at 2:15 AM. There are neither fixed ropes nor an obvious line to the summit. Everyone is free to choose between several alternative routes depending on the conditions. I reached the group, which left at 00:15h just below the summit. While they traversed high on the summit ridge I spotted a small piece of fixed rope to the right. It was going straight to the ridge after a difficult, steep section above. It took me 40min to break the trail for 150m but on the way down the others used this trail. Thus I lost time and speed and arrived on the summit at 10:45h, 3min after Doychin Boyanov, Veikka and Kazuya. I had never had such good weather on any of the summits I have been before. It was a clear, sunny sky with a few clouds, calm with a temperature of only -2?C. Ideal conditions to take pictures, walk around and feel happy and free so high in Karakoram. My first 8000+! I spent about 1:15h on the summit. On the descent, I fell on a steep slope, flipping over a few times and made several uncontrolled turns over several small icy steps before managing to arrest the fall with my ice axe. Happily nothing serious happened and I reached C3 2:05h after I left the summit. I had enough strength to continue to C1 but decided to stay with the others at C3. On July 27th all four Bulgarians descended to C1 (5960m). I was feeling strong and determined and decided to try Gasherbrum-2 solo in the following days.

Gasherbrum-2 (July 27th July – August 2nd)

27.7.2009- Early in the morning I started from C1 with the intention of reaching C3 (6950m). I was climbing fast and reached C2 in 2:30h. I took a short rest and carefully studied the slope above. There was no trail and the fixed ropes were buried under 20-50cm of snow. I was not fully prepared for climbing G-2 right after G-1 and hadn’t read the description of the upper portion of the route to the summit. The climb above C2 was difficult and took me 4:30h. There were three tents at C3 (Spanish, Polish and Iranian). Earlier at C1, I spoke with the Spanish team leader, Mr. Carlos Soria who gave me permission to stay in the tent of the missing Spanish climber Luis Barbero at C3, and I settled in for the night in his tent.[editors note: I and others of the ISLET 2005 expedition to Pik Lenin met Luis at C3 and other points on Pik Lenin and enjoyed his company. We were very saddened to learn of his loss on G-2] The weather was changing and the wind was picking up.

28.7.2009- At 01am I made an attempt up to 7100m but the dark, the fog, the snow and the wind turned me back because I was not able to see where I was going. I slept for 3 hours and at 5am in worsening weather conditions I climbed up to 7250m but again turned back because in the fog I became disorientated and got lost. I had neither a radio nor a sat phone to get an updated weather forecast. In the morning it was obvious that it was getting worse and worse. At 9am I decided to descend. I collected a big load of garbage and the Polish tent (I was asked for this) and reached C1 at about 1pm. A heavy snowfall had begun to fall.

29.7.2009- It was snowing all night long and in the morning everything was under 30cm of fresh snow. Nobody left camp this day. In the late afternoon it became clear that a window of good weather would begin tomorrow, and everyone, but me, packed up for G-1.

30.7.2009- Again without support from other climbers, I broke trail from C1 to C3. Both the trail and the ropes were fully buried under 30 to 50cm of snow. It was a very hard climb in changing weather, including several hours of heavy snowfall.

1.8.2009- That night I was awakened several times by voices which I heard only in my head “…The stove is burning the tent!!!!!!”, “Close the door!!!!”, ”Wake up!!!”… of course there was nobody out there but I continued to dream. I started for the summit at 3am. Early in the morning I passed through the rarely used C4 and started a traverse beneath the summit pyramid. Breaking trail in the soft fresh snow was the most challenging part of this section. At about 12:15h I was about 100m below the summit ridge. I stopped for an insulin shot and a snack. I was looking at the ridge but unable to estimate where the true summit lay. I decided to climb straight up towards the middle of the ridge. I reached the sharp, corniced ridge at 1:10pm and broke the cornice to see Broad Peak, K2 and beyond. Then I realized that the summit of G-2 was actually to the left of me at about a maximum of 40m horizontally.
Having only one ice axe and a trekking pole I started traversing towards the summit from the Pakistani side. Beneath the fresh, powdered snow I stepped onto very hard ice and in a twelve-meter horizontal traverse I fell twice loosing 2m of vertical. Then I decided to quit. Thus the highest point reached by me was actually about 30m horizontally from the highest point of Gasherbrum-2 and about 5-7m below the highest point on the summit ridge. Close, but not enough to claim that I was really on the summit of G-2!
I returned to C3 by 5:10pm – Spaniard Sechu Lopez and Iranians Mohamed and Hussein were there. All of them had planned to push for the summit on the following morning. I didn?t want to disturb their rest and after a short break, I continued down to C1, which I reached at 8:05pm.

2.8.2009- I packed all the gear and the tent from C1 and with a 30+kg pack slowly but safely reached Base Camp.

6.8.2009- Crossing Gondohoro La pass is not a big deal….but sometimes shit happens ;-) I reached the broad section of the col by about 4am. There was another two hours until  sunrise and I decided to wait it out. It was not that cold (about 0?C) and I walked around and took pictures of the full moon and Leila peak. I waited until my Spanish friends, Andres, Luis and Jorge came along and after a short tea break at the small refuge just below the col I suggested to them that we go back to the col to view the sunrise. We climbed to the highest point and I went some 50m to the left to get a better view.
I took a picture and nearly following my steps suddenly I lost the ground under my feet and started to fall. It was a long long time until I surprisingly stopped. “Oh God, I am alive!”. It was 5:25am. I was sitting astride a tiny icy bridge somewhere in the middle of this curved crevasse. Although a lot of adrenaline was pumping through my veins,, I could still feel a lot of pain in different parts of my body. There was a lot of blood running from my left palm but the wound was not serious. I checked all my body and did not establish broken or loose bones. “Help!!!!!!!”- my voice was loud, but not enough to be heard at the surface. I realized that sooner or later the Spaniards would notice my absence and would start looking for me.
I still had a headlamp on my head and started to study the crevasse from below. There was no chance to climb out on my own without crampons and an axe. It was a beautiful ice jewel with dozens of small and big stalactites and columns. The snow bridge was too tiny and I did not move at all.  I had left my pack below the col for my photo-op and regretted not having more back protection for my ride down the crevasse as I sustained some serious back injuries.  I attribute these injuries to my partial loss of finger tip sensitivity for nearly a month!  Luckily hypothermia was not an issue for me as the temperature in the crevasse was about -3C. I was wearing a light down jacket and had no problems with the cold.  25min after the fall I heard the voice of somebody and was thrown a rope. I was pulled out by the Spanish and about 15 porters. Soon after I recovered from the shock, I started my descent. The adrenaline slowly depleted and by the time I reached Xhuspang Camp (4680m), I had pain everywhere in my body. The urine I pissed was red and opaque. I rested and recovered the whole day.

7-9.8.2009- I descended slowly, step by step and reached Hushe and then Skardu.

After I got back to Sofia I underwent a series of urological, neurological and endocrinological tests, to evaluate the consequences of the fall. The loss of sensitivity in the tips of my fingers need time and drugs to recover. The urologist discovered a local haemorrhage in my prostate. All ribs in the chest were more or less dislocated and the supporting muscles and joints were out of whack. However all these injuries are nothing compared to other scenarios which could have resulted from a 13m fall into a crevasse ;-))
After spending a week lying in the hot sand on the beach of Thassos Island in Greece, I am now feeling much better.

Diabetic issues. Nothing dramatic happened during this expedition. The daily checks of the BG showed nothing unusual- low values (3.2 - 4 mmols) during the trekking and continuous altitude climbing and high values (9 - 11 mmols) measured in the rest days after heavy lunches and dinners. I did not notice significant differences in these levels due to the altitude. My BG before breakfast ranged between 4.5 and 6.2 mmols in all of the camps. I intentionally reduced my dosage of regular insulin in order to prevent sudden hypos due to activity and increased insulin sensitivity. This led to a HbA1C of 7.1% after the expedition compared to my “normal” A1C between 5.9% to 6.6%.

Acknowledgments. I would like to thank ELI LILLY Bulgaria for the financial support of the Gasherbrum 2009 project. North Face Bulgaria provided personal clothing for each of the members from the Bulgarian team. As always, David Panofsky kindly and professionally improved the language and the style of this report….David, be prepared to drink beers and wine in Val Grigna 2010! ;-))

Boyan Petrov, September 2009

PS: Six days ago, while picking blueberries at about 1950m in a mountain near Sofia I was bitten by an adult Adder (Vipera berus, one of the two poisonous snakes, which occur in Bulgaria). This story is also very interesting but I will write the report after I fully recover…;-)