Bulgarian mountaineer Atanas Skatov became on Thursday the first vegan to have ascended the eighth highest peak in the world – the 8163-metre Manaslu in the Himalayas.

Skatov also became the second Bulgarian to have ascended the peak after Boyan Petrov climbed it a day earlier on Wednesday.

At present the Bulgarian is on his way back to the base camp with the weather conditions expected to rapidly deteriorate.

The goal of Skatov is to show that veganism does not affect negatively one's physical and mental conditions.

He has been actively involved in mountaineering since the beginning of 2013 and in less than three years has managed to ascend the highest peaks of Africa, South America, Australia and Oceania and Antarctica.

On 24 May 2014 Skatov became the thirteenth Bulgarian to have climbed Mount Everest, sportal.bg informs.