site.btaNovember 15, 2004: Bulgarian Expedition Sets Off for Antarctica to Explore and Map Tangra Mountain Range on Livingston Island

The first group of eight participants in the Tangra 2004 scientific expedition left for Antarctica on November 15, 2004. The work of the Bulgarian team on the Ice Continent continued until the beginning of February 2005. Its mission was to collect scientific data on the Tangra mountain range on Livingston Island, Antarctica.

The team included Dr. Lyubomir Ivanov, President of the Atlantic Club of Bulgaria, mountaineer Doychin Vassilev and others. Three of the participants - Doychin Vassilev, the guide of the motor boats Emil Mishev and the expedition doctor Nikolay Kovachev - stepped foot on Antarctica for the first time.

BTA's Home News published on November 15: 

First Group of Project Tangra 2004 Participants Leave for Antarctica, Three of Them Will Step on Ice Continent for First Time

Sofia, November 15, 2004 (BTA) - The first group of eight participants in the Project Tangra 2004 scientific expedition leaves for Antarctica. The team, which includes Dr. Lyubomir Ivanov, President of the Atlantic Club of Bulgaria, and the famous Bulgarian mountaineer Doychin Vassilev, was sent to Sofia Airport. For the first time three of the expedition participants will set foot on Antarctica - Doichin Vassilev, the guide of the motor boats Emil Mishev and the expedition doctor Nikolay Kovachev.

The Bulgarian Antarctic team will board a Uruguayan ship from Ushuaia on November 21, which will take them to the St. Kliment Ohridski Bulgarian antarctic base on the island of Livingston, the expedition leader Christo Pimpirev told BTA.

Bulgaria is a full member of the Antarctic government, but without its own logistics there is a risk in the return of the expedition participants, Pimpirev added.     

What is new for this expedition is that for the first time polar explorers will live on the ice, Lyubomir Ivanov told BTA. In his words, with its base in Antarctica, Bulgaria is one of the 27 countries in the world that decide how to use the resources of the Ice Continent. (...)