User:Blazpetrich/Bojan Počkar

Bojan Počkar was a Slovenian mountain climber who died on Kabru Mountain in October of 1996.

Bojan Počkar was born on March 17, 1963 in Prem, Ilirska Bistrica. He got interested in climbing already in elementary school named after Dragotin Kette in his home town. Bojan continued his studies later on in Postojna and Ljubljana, where he eventually graduated from forestry in 1987 and five years later became the youngest forester with magister degree in Slovenia

He started with Alpine climbing in 1983 mostly in Julian Alps, where in 1986 named a new route on Rombon peak (2207 m, 7241 ft) after his schoolmate Sam Trošt, who died two years before during the ascend from Krn (2244 m, 7362 ft), in the same southwestern part in Julian Alps. During those two years Počkar did incredible 125 expeditions that gave him enough experience and skills to search for new challenges, outside of Alps. First in 1987 when he climbed new routes in Bolivia together with Bojan Pograjc, Jernej Stritih and Filip Bertoncelj, on south face of Mururata (5871 m, 19262 ft) in a Cordillera Real mountain range. The Alpine Association of Slovenia wrote about the expedition in 1987:

"Mururata and Pico Schulze, Cordillera Real. Yugoslavs from Slovenia climbed in the Cordillera Real from May 9 to 31. Aside from climbs on Huayna Potosí and Illimani, they made three new routes. On May 18, Filip Bertoncelj, Bojan Pockar, Bojan Pograjc and Jernej Stritih took ten hours to climb the couloir on the south face of Mururata (5868 meters, 19,253 feet). The ascent rose for 540 meters from the glacier to a point just to the left of the summit. Two pitches were of 90° and much was between 60° and 70°. They made two new routes on Pico Schulze (5830 meters, 19,128 feet). On May 26, Pograjc and Pockar climbed the southeast face, while Stritih and Matjaž Vrtovec climbed the couloir in the southwest face. The latter route was extremely difficult."

In 1988 Bojan received Sportsman of the year award in Ilirska Bistrica, for two new routes in Canadian Rockies between June 25, until August 4. 1988, that he climbed with Bojan Pograjc and Nejc Skov. The first was on the south face of Yamnuska (2240 m, 7349 ft), 400-meter high rock face near Calgary, and the second was the right side of 1350-meter high north side of Mount Temple (3544 m, 11627 ft). He returned to Canada in 1990 with Simona Škarja, where they climbed a new route on the north face of Mount Robson (3954 m, 12972 ft) and named it Slovenian route. That was also the first female climb on the north face of the mountain.

His Himalayan expeditions unfortunately offered a bit less success. His first trip there was with Vanja Furlan in October of 1989 where they unsuccessfully attempted a climb on north wall of Ama Dablam (6812 m, 22349 ft). On July 15, 1990 Bojan and Vanja climbed a new route on Monte Rosa (4634 m, 15203 ft) in Pennine Alps and named it Gringo. After that Bojan and Vanja were first unsuccessful on Kumbhakarna (7710 m, 25300 ft) in 1991  and in April 1992, Bojan returned with Vanja Furlan, and unsuccesfully attempted to climb east side of the same mountain. They started the mission on April 8. and reached the base camp on April 28. After that they acclimatized on Kabru Mountain, where Bojan would not climb for the last time. On May 12, they started the climb on Kumbhakarna and after spending 96 hours in the mountain had to quit because of Počkar's exhaustion and Furlan's frostbites. Nevertheless, even not being able to reach the peak of Kumbhakarna, they climbed 1600-metres high east wall of the mountain and named it Slovenian route. Slovenian climber and numerous Piolet d'Or award winner Marko Prezelj described the attempt:

"The second objective was the east face of Kumbakharna East. Vanja Furlan and Bojan Pockar acclimatized, helping with the stocking of camps on Kangchenjunga. On April 28, they left Base Camp and moved close to the bottom of Kumbhakama’s east face, where they spent the night. The next day, they crossed Kumbhakarna’s east glacier. At four P.M., they started up the wall at 5530 meters. By midnight, they had climbed 400 meters of 60° to 85° ice, UIAA Grade V rock and mixed climbing. They continued on through the night and at five A.M. reached the biggest sérac in the center of the face. The next 50 meters took them four hours to climb: two rope-lengths of VII, one of VII–, 90 ice and Al. There, at 6380 meters, they rested for six hours because of avalanches. They set out again at three P.M. and at eleven P.M. bivouacked at 6750 meters, having climbed one pitch of VII– and ice of 65° to 70°.

''On May 1, they departed from their bivouac at eight A.M. At ten A.M., they left their bivouac equipment behind at 6900 meters to lighten their loads on 70 to 85° ice. Just below 7000 meters, they climbed in two hours the most difficult pitch: VII, 90° to 95° ice. The brittle ice was discouraging enough, but it began to snow furiously. This was their high point at 7050 meters, still 400 meters from the summit. The next 80 meters of rock were deluged with continuous avalanches. They waited there for nine hours, half sitting, half hanging on a tiny shelf. When it cleared a bit at eleven P.M., they rappelled 150 meters to their bivouac gear. Both got frostbitten fingers and toes. They were in the bivouac for eight hours and on the morning of May 2 decided to continue the descent. They were becoming seriously dehydrated and had had little to eat. Avalanches forced a halt at one P.M. but after three hours they took advantage of a quiet interlude between avalanches to escape to a snow cave in the sérac and a fourth bivouac. The next morning, in clearing weather, they climbed and rappelled down the rest of the face and finally reached Base Camp in the evening."''

In April of 1994 Bojan Počkar, Tadej Golob and Štefan Milnarič attempted a climb on Hiunchuli (6441 m, 21132 ft), however due to the weather conditions and difficult route, had to abort the mission.

In 1995 Bojan started climbing with his new partner Žiga Petrič, who was 23 years old at the time and considered as one of the brightest prospects in european alpinism. Together they climbed new routes in the Alps. First in Breithorn (4164 m,13661 ft) on 5th of August, Nadelhorn (4327 m, 14196 ft) on 28th of November in 1995 and Weisshorn (4506 m, 14783 ft) in June of 1996. In between Počkar and Petrič had a succesful trip to Himalayas. On 7th of October 1995 they climbed a new route on Singuchuli (6501 m, 21329 ft) and named it the Perun route after an ancient Slavic God of thunder and lighting. A Dutch enthusiastic climber William van Meegdenburg wrote about the Perun route:

"In October 1995 Ziga Petric and Bojan Pockar climbed the face via a line fractionally to the right of that taken by the Dutch. Toward the top they found sections of 75-80° and UIAA VI on rock. The last pitch to the crest of the south ridge was the crux (VI+ rock and vertical ice). Above, a very unstable, dangerous and corniced crest led to the summit. Unable to reverse their ascent, they were forced to rappel directly down the face, exposed to serac fall. They named their route Perun (ED2). The Dutch noticed two sections of old fixed rope on the rock spur to their left, and a third below their exit point on the summit ridge, seemingly emerging from the rock spur. The origins of these are currently unknown. Singu Chuli was first climbed in 1957 by David Cox and Wilfred Noyce via the east ridge, but despite its current status as a “trekking peak”, this mountain is infrequently ascended."

A year later Počkar and Petrič returned to Himalayas. This time they were accompanied by a doctor Anda Perdan who was recommended to the team by Tone Škarja. one of the key figures in Slovenian Himalayan success story. Žiga Petrič, Bojan Počkar and dr. Anda Perdan arrived at the base camp at the East Kumbhakarna Mountain or Jannu (7710 m, 25,300 ft), important western outlier of the world's third highest peak Kangchenjunga (8586 m, 28,169 ft), on September 27, 1996. Kangchenjunga was considered the highest mountain until 1852 when recalculations were made and resulted in K2 (8586 metres (28,169ft) and Mt. Everest (8,848 m, 29,029 ft) topping it, however it remained one of the toughest tests and deadliest peaks for Alpine climbers until this day. During the typical acclimatisation climb on Kabru Mountain, which has a direct view on the east side of Kangchenjunga Žiga and Bojan went missing after failing to report to their base camp. On 17th of October the camp was dismissed and they were pronounced dead with the cause being stated as an avalanche on the night between 4th and 5th of October, 1996.      Bojan was 33 years old.