Today, pressclub “Bulgaria” will award one of its few Silver Falcon awards to Bulgarian climber Atanas Skatov.

The mountaineer, who is a vegan, will be awarded for his strong character and bravery this year as he climbed three eight-thousanders: Kanchenjunga, Gasherbrum 1 and Gasherbrum 2, and is now to set off for Dhaulagiri, which will be his fourth for this year, BNT reported.

This has been the climber's strongest season so far, with three peaks over 8,000 metres, for an extremely short period of 2 months. On May 15, 2019, Atanas Skatov set foot on Kanchenjunga, the third highest mountain in the world (8,586 ).On July 12, 2019, Skatov climbed Gasherbrum 1 (8,080 m) and only after 2 days rest in a base camp, he headed to his 9th eight-thousander, Gasherbrum 2. So far, Atanas Skatov has successfully climbed 9 of the 14 highest mountain peaks in the world. He is the first Bulgarian who climbed Gasherbrum 1 and Gasherbrum 2 in one season, in a record time of 6 days.

Many mountaineers from around the world aim to attain the so-called Crown of the Himalayas, which means to summit all 14 eight-thousanders on the planet. Only about 40 climbers in the world have completed this crown, with there is no Bulgarian yet among them.

Atanas Skatov aims to become the first Bulgarian to have climbed all 14 eight thousandths of the Crown of the Himalayas, Part of his project is to do it without consuming food of animal origin and to become the first vegan in the world with such achievement.

In 2017, Skatov climbed the highest mounts on each of the 7 continents.