ISLAMABAD: Bulgarian climber Atanas Georgiev Skatov fell to death during an expedition on Pakistan’s K2 his team said today (Friday), the second person to die on the world’s second-highest mountain in weeks.
According to Seven Summit Treks – a trekking company leading the expedition, Atanas Skatov, 42, fell as he was changing ropes during his descent to base camp. “It seems some errors occurred and he fell down. We had fixed the mountain with new ropes which were not broken,” the company said.
The Alpine Club of Pakistan also confirmed the incident, saying his body was later recovered and flown by a Pakistani military helicopter to the nearby city of Skardu.
The Bulgarian Atanas Skatov died after suffering a significant fall when he descended to Camp 3 K2, after a night with very bad weather conditions. pic.twitter.com/tnqFkf066C
— Moises Lopez (@chapoisat) February 5, 2021
“We pay homage to the strength and spirit of our climber — his feat and his relentless will to (reach) the top will never be forgotten!” the Bulgarian foreign ministry said in a statement.
Skatov is the second climber to die on K2’s slopes this season after a Spanish mountaineer fell to his death last month. A third climber — Russian-American Alex Goldfarb — also died on a nearby mountain.
Separately reported today from K2 Winter Climb, Pakistani climber Muhammad Ali Sadpara along with his son Sajjid has accelerated the expedition to ascent the second highest mountain of the world, K2 without oxygen.
![Local residents at the Swat River, which is overflowing due to pre-monsoon heavy rains in the area on the outskirts of Mingora, the main town of Pakistan's Swat Valley [Sherin Zada/AP]](https://mmnews.tv/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Flooding-in-Swat-river-350x250.jpg)
