site.btaFamous Bulgarian Mountaineer Doychin Vassilev Dies at 80

Famous Bulgarian mountaineer and documentary filmmaker Doychin Vassilev has died on December 7 at the age of 80 in hospital after suffering a stroke, journalist Ivan Popyordanov was quoted by Bulgarian National TV as saying on Tuesday. 

Vassilev's wake will be on Saturday, December 14. 

Doychin Vassilev was a member of the three national Himalayan expeditions (Lhotse 1981, Everest 1984 and Annapurna 1989) and had climbed five eight-thousanders in his career, though that of Shishapangma (8027 m) in 1999, along with Dr Karina Sulova, is not recognized by international statistics as the two reached the central dome (8008 m) and not the main peak (8027 m).

Vassilev has climbed Dhaulagiri in 1995, Mount Everest (1997), Makalu (1998), and Shishapangma and Cho Oyu (1999). 

Doichin Vassilev was born on 12 June 1944 in the village of Kumaritsa, today a district of the town of Novi Iskar near Sofia. He graduated as a printing engineer in Leipzig (Germany). He was a lecturer at the then Julius Fucik Technical School of Polygraphy and Photography, and then worked in printing companies, even in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at one time, as an advisor to Minister Solomon Passy.

He was also a participant in the 2005 expedition to Livingstone Island in Antarctica, where the Tangra topographic survey was conducted.

Vassilev was also an avid photographer and documentary filmmaker. He is the author of four films:  Chomolungma (1997), Makalu (1998), Manaslu (1999), and White Dreams (2001), and has had several photo exhibitions.