K2 Celebrations continue a history of neglect

2004 marked 50 years since the first climb of K2. This is an edited version of a story written by Dr. Kenneth Iain MacDonald, Professor of Geography and International Development Studies at the University of Toronto in Canada.

For the past few weeks the papers of Pakistan have heralded the “conquerors” of K2. “Golden Jubilee” celebrations have been held. “Dignitaries”, most of whom have likely never set foot on the glaciers leading up to K2, were treated to a fine couple of days in Skardu. Mountaineers and trekkers were honoured in Skardu and Islamabad. The tourism authorities have, yet again, promised significant investment for tourism promotion and infrastructure development in the Northern Areas. Through all of this, the most important component of mountain travel in Pakistan – porters - have been ignored: their voice unheard; their achievements unrecognized; their concerns unheeded.

There is a story to be told. It is the story of the Balti men, still alive, who travelled to K2 with Ardito Desio’s expedition in 1954. The fact that, according to my sources, there are only two left, of the hundreds who carried khansamah up the Baltoro glacier, says much about life expectancy in Baltistan.

But my more immediate concern is that neither of these men was invited to participate in the K2 golden jubilee celebrations. This was not simply an organizational oversight. It’s reflective of a consistent pattern of neglect that characterizes the condition of men who work as mountaineering and trekking porters.

We don’t have to look far for more striking examples of this lack of consideration. In July of this year an unprecedented number of trekkers and climbers have landed at K2 base camp, spurred on by the Italian Alpine Club, the Government of Pakistan and local travel companies desperate for business after the wholly unwarranted decline in tourism over the past 3 years.

There’s a general agreement in the town of Skardu that this is all for the good. Hotel walas are happy, transporters are happy, shopkeepers are happy. Even the maulvis seem happy. No doubt, porters are happy. Because of the number of foreigners up on the ice, there is work galore. In fact, there is so much work that there have been periods when porters have been in short supply. This has forced local travel companies, responsible for logistics, to scour local villages for men willing to take on porter work and reports have come in of companies offering men double wages in an effort to secure enough porters to maintain the service and schedule they have promised to their foreign clients.

Men are pulled away from domestic and agricultural responsibilities, increasing the labour burden on women and the elderly or forcing children out of school to shoulder the labour burdens of their absent fathers. But the benefits are clear. The opportunity to earn some quick cash, even if the work is physically draining is particularly attractive and useful for households that find themselves in marginal economic circumstances. Unless of course, you don’t come back.

So far this year, six men that we know of have not come back. Most of them had not worked as porters before and were inexperienced in the techniques of mountain travel. Five of them drowned while trying to take a short cut across a fast flowing and freezing glacial stream. The other, a teacher eager to earn some extra money during the summer, fell, unroped, through a snow bridge and into a crevasse. He was surrounded by people without the knowledge or capacity to rescue him.

To add insult to their death, two of the bodies of the drowned porters lay snagged on a rock in the middle of the Braldu River with no one making an effort or taking responsibility for their recovery. Presumably it would cut into profit margins.

These deaths, as with most of the deaths of porters that I know of, were avoidable. With some advance co-ordination it would have been relatively easy to calculate the number of trekkers and climbers visiting the Karakoram this summer and to estimate the amount of labour needed to carry their loads, and to arrange for experienced porters or to provide sufficient training to meet the demand for experienced labour. Yet no one seems to have done this. Not the Italians promoting the 50th anniversary, not the government of Pakistan, keen to attract more tourists and promote the image of a safe Pakistan, not the local travel companies, keen to make some money after a couple of dry years. In a way, this reminds me of the recent conclusion of the recent Butler report. No individual is culpable; it’s the system that’s to blame.

In my years of working in the central Karakoram I have met men whose bodies have been ravaged by the effects of portering. Men with corneal ulcers, chronic lacerations, hernia, high altitude pulmonary and cerebral edema, hypothermia, frostbite, respiratory ailments. And, of course, there are the deaths. While porters are supposed to be insured by the companies they work for, I have spoken with families who have actually had to struggle for years to collect the meager insurance money that is supposed to take the place of a husband and father.

What bothers me most about this situation is that it’s so openly visible to those doing the travelling. While we may turn a blind eye to those who work in the sweatshops that produce much of our clothes, they are invisible to us. It is easier to deny their reality. This is impossible on the trail, walking beside a man who is carrying the equipment that allows you to trek or climb in the central Karakoram.

So what allows these conditions to persist? Certainly part of the fault here lies in very vague government regulations regarding the nature of the equipment that should be given to porters. But the biggest fault must lie with the labour contractors – those companies arranging logistics, who can choose to treat porters well or poorly, and the people doing the travelling, who can advocate for improved conditions for porters. This is happening to some extent. Organizations like the International Porter Protection Group (www.ippg.org) and Tourism Concern in Britain have undertaken education campaigns to encourage trekkers and climbers to use firms that treat porters well and adhere to the agreements they make with porters. Porters themselves say they would be satisfied to some extent if travellers would pay closer attention to the distribution of loads and equipment and take direct responsibility for overseeing the payment of wages.

Of course, this story of porters is not unique. It is the tale of so many who toil to serve the rich and to make others richer. But in a world that claims to respect human rights; in a circle of travellers who claim to promote social justice, it is a story that needs to be addressed. The occasion of the 50th anniversary of K2 would have been an apt time to begin to address this, by thinking in advance about the demands that would be placed on labour and trying to reduce the risk, by extracting the bodies of two dead men from the Braldu river and showing them the dignity that we all deserve, by recognizing old men who, 50 years ago, helped an Italian ascend to fame while they languished in obscurity.

All hail the conquerors! … All forgotten the footmen..