Atanas Georgiev Skatov
Born on 11.03.1978 in Sliven, Bulgaria.
High school in Sliven, Bulgaria.
Master’s degree in Plant Protection at the Agricultural university of Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
PhD degree at Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany.
Worked as a scientist, university teacher and a manager in the private sector in Bulgaria and Germany.
A member of the Union of Scientists in Bulgaria since 2006.
2010 – 2012 – Kom-Emine (650 km of E3) for three consecutive years.
2012 – started practicing sports, including tourism, alpinism, climbing, cycling, swimming, yoga, jogging, skiing, dancing etc.
At the beginning of 2012 all animal products were excluded from his menu as part of an experiment aiming to show whether one could live well on this diet and exercise his body and mind to the fullest at the same time.
Atanas Skatov has not eaten meat since January 2007. At the beginning of 2012, he completely stopped eating animal products and became vegan. From his school years until the summer of 2010 Atanas had not been actively involved in sports.
In 2013 and 2014, after becoming vegan, he managed to climb the highest peaks of Africa, Europe, South America, Asia, Australia and Oceania and Antarctica in less than 24 months. He became the first vegan in the world to ever climb Everest.
On October 1, 2015, Atanas Skatov became the second vegan to successfully climb Manaslu, the eighth highest peak on the planet at 8165 meters.
climbed 11 peaks above 8000 metres, including Everest, on the North and South Faces, 2014, 2017.
climbed 4 peaks above 8000 metres in one calendar year in 140 days.
climbed the Seven Summits of all the continents.
fastest Bulgarian ascent of two peaks above 8000 metres – Everest and Lhotse, in May, 2017, 5 days and 12 hours.
fastest Bulgarian expedition to a peak above 8000 metres – Makalu, 8481, in 94 hours.
first Bulgarian to have taken part in 4 expeditions to summits above 8000 m in 90 days – Anapurna, Dhaulagiri, Makalu and Gash2 in 2016.
first Bulgarian to have taken part in 20 expeditions in 7 years, 13 of which to peaks above 8000 metres.
first vegan in the world to have climbed a peak above 8000 metres without the use of oxygen – Cho Yu, 8201 metres, on 13.05.2018.
fastest Bulgarian to have climbed one, two, three, five, seven and ten peaks above 8000 metres.
Bulgarian sportsman of the month for May 2014 and May 2018 – Golden Bulgaria.
Honorary citizen of Sliven.
for his environmental work Atanas Skatov was declared Green Personality of 2019.
Gold Medal of Honour from the Mayor of Varna, August 2019.
Silver Falcon for Courage and Virility, September 2019.
Varna sportsman of the year for 2019.
Medal of Honour of the Bulgarian Tourism Association.
Until the summer of 2010 I hadn’t been involved in any physical exercise for the previous 14 years.
I do not consume meat since January 2007, and fish since December 2009. In the beginning of 2012 I excluded from my menu all animal products. I wanted to experiment with myself – to see the response of my physical body. The results were more than perfect in the first couple of months, I felt great strength and as each day passed I became more healthy, agile and strong. And that was the time when the idea came to me – to start my own project.
The goal of this project is to make a research, which to show, if a reduction in the consumption of meat and animal products is healthy and will not affect the physical and mental qualities of human life. On the contrary — to show that without the consumption of animal products, the human body functions much better and can achieve higher physical and mental results. I intend to prove that by practicing the most stresful sport activities — high altitude climbing. I have no coaches or teachers, I learn everything by myself.
I need funds for completing my project.
The goal of the project is to climb all the 14×8000 summits for very short period of time in order to further analyze how my physical and mental body will behave in such stressful environment. During the entire project i will make the respective medical examinations and they will be published for the needs of the research.
The consumption of meat and meat production is one of the major sources polluting the Earth. The production of food for the animals takes 50% of the agricultural land. The gas methanе produced by them is the biggest destroyer of the ozone layer. As the human population is increasing‚ the consumption of meat is going up too, but the land is limited.
My main idea is that mankind could reduce the consumption of meat and meat products in order to release free land for production of plants food. I do want to do something for our Planet. I care very much about the future of our children and would like to show everyone, that to live healthy and successful life as Vegan is completely possible. Up to now I was able, with my own savings and a few sponsors, to complete Seven Summits project. The 14×8000 project requires much more funds as the costs for permits for summits, airway tickets and expedition are very significant.
For this reason, I am kindly asking for your support and would be glad if you become part of my mission to save our Planet Earth!
Together we could make it happen (take real action to do it instead of just talking about it!)
Worldwide, Atanas Skatov will be the first vegan to implement such a project.
