Under mountains that dagger the sky, a misfit caravan of Pakistani porters trudge towards K2 carrying live chickens and lawn furniture for adventurers seeking an audience with the world’s second-highest peak.
Tour operators typically quote between $2,000 and $7,000 for the trip starting in Askole — a village in Pakistan’s northeastern Gilgit-Baltistan region where jeeps end their muddling journeys and spill trekkers sporting neck pillows and parasols, as well as more hardbred mountain-climbers.
Porters — doing the dogsbody work carting luggage, dining tents and pantries of provisions — make something like 30,000 to 40,000 rupees ($105 to $140) each trip in the four-month summer season, less than the price of high-end hiking trousers one firm recommends clients wear. Growing numbers of people arriving at K2 has also meant more rubbish. Sajid Ali Sadpara, whose father Ali Sadpara died during a K2 climb in 2021, is now trying to clean the mountain in his honour. AFP
