Porter charter

Why this is published

Because the part of this industry that goes wrong most often is the part guests never see. A porter charter that only exists in an office is not a charter. This one is public so that you can hold us to it, and so that the crew knows what to expect before they agree to the trip.

Loads

Maximum 25 kg per porter, excluding their own equipment and food. Loads are weighed at the roadhead, in front of you, on our scale. If a load is over, it is split and another porter is hired — not negotiated down with the man carrying it.

Pay

Published daily rates, paid in full, on time, with no deductions for food, equipment or breakage. Our stage rate is PKR 2,000. Nobody is paid less because the weather shortened the trip.

Insurance

Accident and life insurance on every trip for every porter and high-altitude worker, arranged and paid by us, not by them and not deducted. Cover meets the current Gilgit-Baltistan requirement in full: PKR 2 million for high-altitude porters and PKR 1 million for low-altitude porters. No climbing permit is issued without valid certificates for every member of the crew, and we would not want one that was.

Equipment issued

Boots, jacket, gloves, glacier glasses and shelter, issued by us, kept by them. A porter in borrowed footwear on a glacier is an accident with a date on it.

Food and shelter

At every camp, every night, cooked from the same kitchen as the guests. Not a separate arrangement, not a cash allowance, not their own problem.

Dignity

The crew are named in the trip report and credited in photographs where they appear. Balti and Gilgit-Baltistan people are colleagues on this payroll, not local colour in somebody holiday album.

How to check

Watch the weighing. Ask any porter directly what he is being paid and whether he is insured — they know, and we have told them to answer. If what you hear does not match this page, write to the address below and the trip leader will answer it before you get home.