Iohan Gueorguiev (20 January 1988 – 19 August 2021) was a Bulgarian Canadian long-distance bikepacker from

Mississauga Mississauga is a Canadian city in the province of Ontario. Situated on the north-western shore of Lake Ontario in the Regional Municipality of Peel, it borders Toronto (Etobicoke) to the east, Brampton to the north, Milton to the northwest, ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. He was known for cycling from Canada's

Arctic Circle The Arctic Circle is one of the two polar circles, and the northernmost of the five major circle of latitude, circles of latitude as shown on maps of Earth at about 66° 34' N. Its southern counterpart is the Antarctic Circle. The Arctic Circl ...

to El Chalten,

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

which he completed in six years from 2014 to 2020 and for documenting his cycling adventures in his

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel ''The Bike Wanderer''.

Biography

According to his website ''The Bike Wanderer'', Gueorguiev was born and raised in

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

. At age 15, his parents sent him to live with an uncle in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada to search for better opportunities. In his 20s, he studied engineering for about two years at

McMaster University McMaster University (McMaster or Mac) is a public research university in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The main McMaster campus is on of land near the residential neighbourhoods of Ainslie Wood, Ontario, Ainslie Wood and Westdale, Ontario, Westd ...

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: * Alexander Hamilton (1755/1757–1804), first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States * ''Hamilton'' (musical), a 2015 Broadway musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda ** ''Hamilton'' (al ...

. In April 2014, he began cycling from

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

down to Canada's

Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories is a federal Provinces and territories of Canada, territory of Canada. At a land area of approximately and a 2021 census population of 41,070, it is the second-largest and the most populous of Provinces and territorie ...

following the Arctic Circle and documented his ordeal on his YouTube channel. He left his studies in the university in 2015 after he was accepted as a recipient of a sponsorship and stipend from the bicycle company Blackburn as part of its Out There program, which involves the selection of six or seven ambassadors known as the Blackburn Rangers. That year, he cycled the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route from Canada to

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

as part of Blackburn's Out There program. After completing the cycle tour of the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, he continued cycling through Central and

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

, eventually reaching El Chalten,

in 2020. Along the way, he was named one of the Ambassadors of the Year by the cycling website ''Bikepacking.com''. In February 2020, he attempted to hike

Ojos del Salado Nevado Ojos del Salado is a Dormant volcano, dormant complex volcano in the Andes on the Argentina–Chile border. It is the highest volcano on Earth and the highest peak in Chile. The upper reaches of Ojos del Salado consist of several overlapp ...

, the highest mountain in

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

. During the onset of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

in March 2020, Gueorguiev returned to Canada and was unable to travel due to border restrictions. This prevented him from cycling and creating new content for his over 97,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel and he developed depression as a result. That year, he was diagnosed with

insomnia Insomnia, also known as sleeplessness, is a sleep disorder where people have difficulty sleeping. They may have difficulty falling asleep, or staying asleep for as long as desired. Insomnia is typically followed by daytime sleepiness, low ene ...

caused by

central sleep apnea Central sleep apnea (CSA) or central sleep apnea syndrome (CSAS) is a sleep-related Disorder (medicine)#Disorder, disorder in which the effort to Breathing, breathe is diminished or absent, typically for 10 to 30 seconds either intermittently o ...

, which contributed to his depression. During this time, largely unable to travel, a battle with latent insomnia took its toll on his psyche.

Death

He was diagnosed with central sleep apnea, a condition in which a person's airways relax while sleeping, preventing the flow of oxygen to the brain. This lack of oxygen to the brain causes it to react, waking the person in order to deal with the problem. Gueorguiev died by

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Risk factors for suicide include mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse. Some suicides are impulsive acts driven by stress (such as from financial or ac ...

on 19 August 2021 in Cranbrook,

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

, Canada.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gueorguiev, Iohan 1988 births 2021 deaths Artists from Ontario Canadian male cyclists Male touring cyclists Ultra-distance cyclists Cycling writers Canadian travel writers Canadian photographers Canadian people of Bulgarian descent Sportspeople from Mississauga Writers from Mississauga 2021 suicides Suicides in British Columbia YouTubers from Ontario 21st-century Canadian sportsmen