Presentation: “45 Years Since the First Bulgarian Himalayan Expedition – Lhotse (8,516 m) – A Meeting with Some of the Expedition Members”
Kancho Dolapchiev was born on 23 October 1944 in Samokov, Bulgaria. He began his sporting career as a skier and later turned to ski mountaineering, becoming one of Bulgaria’s leading competitors in ski-rally racing.
In 1968, together with Mladen Katrandzhiev and Encho Petkov, he took part in the first international ski mountaineering competition featuring a Bulgarian team—the legendary Lecco Rally in Italy, held under the patronage of Riccardo Cassin. Despite arriving with limited equipment and little experience in this type of competition, the Bulgarian team surprised the field by finishing third. For the following ten years, Bulgarian competitors continued to take part in the race and regularly achieved top results. In 1977, Dolapchiev, together with Dimitar Bardarev and Radko Markov, won the Lecco Rally.
Dolapchiev was among Bulgaria’s first national champions in ski mountaineering, winning the title in 1973. He has taken part in every Bulgarian ski mountaineering championship since the sport was established in the country.
His mountaineering achievements include an ascent of Petit Dru via the historic Voie des Guides. He has also established several new climbing routes in Bulgaria that have since become classics of Bulgarian mountaineering.
In 1972, he took part in the first Bulgarian expedition to Communism Peak, then the highest mountain in the former Soviet Union. Together with Avram Avramov, Encho Petkov and Ognyan Baldzhiyski, he set a Bulgarian high-altitude record by reaching 7,495 metres, the highest point in the Pamir. Dolapchiev went on to summit the peak twice more.
He also climbed Lenin Peak twice and, in 1976, took part in the first independent Bulgarian national expedition to an exotic mountain range—the Noshak expedition in the Afghan Hindu Kush. Noshak was successfully climbed by 13 prominent Bulgarian mountaineers, including Dolapchiev.
In 1981, he joined the national expedition to Lhotse, during which Hristo Prodanov became the first Bulgarian to summit an eight-thousander. Dolapchiev was part of the summit team alongside Ognyan Baldzhiyski and Metodi Savov, reaching an altitude of 7,350 metres.
In 1984, he took part in Bulgaria’s first national expedition to Mount Everest. He reached 7,520 metres and played a key role in supporting Hristo Prodanov’s successful ascent.
Today, Kancho Dolapchiev continues to spend time in the mountains. As he puts it, there is a mountain for every age. In 2018, at the age of 74, he climbed Mount Elbrus, together with a friend, as part of an expedition whose participants had an average age of 62.