A couple of weeks ago I had a chance to trek towards the K2 base camp with an expedition team I knew about what goes on the Baltoro/K2 base camp trek from past stories from my friends so I was mentally prepared for everything I knew it was not going to be perfect fun ride away from the civilization as mountains always promise I knew how k2 trek has been commercialized. But even after that being mentally prepared for everything it was hard to just ignore everything that goes on the Baltoro trek. From the exploitation of porters to the incompetence of the tourism industry and tour companies you experience everything that shouldn’t happen in the mountains. Yes, I understand it’s a commercial trek that can generate a lot of money but even that has been done in an incompetent way possible and it has been going on for 30-40 years and there hasn’t been even a minor positive change. So I couldn’t stop myself from writing this article rather than being just helpless in the situation I can do what’s in my hands it might be a minute effort but at least I can try to explain the 10 things that I felt on my experience to K2 base camp need a drastic change so whoever is reading and is aiming to do the K2 base camp trek he is aware of all these things and it is the betterment of everyone from clients/trekker/climber to the tour companies and of course to change the lives of the poor porters
The K2 base camp trek is one of the most famous and challenging treks not just in the Karakoram but in any mountain range The longevity of it is the most tiring physically but you need also mental toughness and there are not many tour companies who alarm or give a proper briefing to the trekkers about the challenges and odd situations they have to face. Most of the difficult and odd situations can be dealt with by the tour company you are tied with but the problem is they have been institutionalized by the tour companies and also the tourism industry of Pakistan the unprofessionalism is normalized and because of that reason some of the foreign clients especially suffer from bad stomach, altitude problems and lack of communication from the leading guide
Here are 10 things that need to be changed and things you should prepare for when you are trekking in the Baltoro region.
- Proper briefing of the trek
Well, the errors and blunders start from day one the client is not mentally prepared for what he is going to experience because in your group there is a mixed bag of people some are experienced trekkers some are not, some young and some are too old to the age of up to 75-80, Some have done their homework and some aren’t,
They depend on the tour company to explain it to them. So you have to inform them about each and every aspect of the trek from day 1 to the last day of departure like the distance they have to cover each day what kind of terrain they would be trekking and what the altitude on each camping site and even what kind of food they will be having each day
- Itinerary is mandatory
On many expeditions the itinerary is mostly ignored because many things have to be improvised in the mountain and it’s kind of true but if each and every member has the itinerary it saves the time for everyday announcements about the next day. It is as important as the briefing itinerary is a shortened form of the briefing that your client has always had in case he has missed out or forgotten something from the main briefing on day 1.
- The client should know what he has signed up for!
As I said, a K2 base camp trek is one of the most difficult treks on the planet so clients should not expect everything from the guide or from the expedition team. The k2 base camp trek has become so mainstream that many people who have not even done some trekking want to do this trek they don’t do the research on the trek and maybe for the bragging rights they want to do this expedition and I believe even before the briefing when the client is approaching any expedition company the company should inform them about how difficult the trek is and what’s their level of trekking from 1 to 10. I know it’s eventually up to them but at least they should be alarmed because once they have signed up they might struggle because of lack of experience in trekking and it becomes a problem for the team and he will not have a very pleasant experience himself to so the client should be informed what he has signed up for as they say prevention is better than cure.
- Should not expect everything, adjustment is important
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Mountains can be a harsh place to live and especially when it’s Karakoram it is the most challenging landscape and terrain. Even if you have paid for the services, sometimes it’s difficult for the expedition team to provide everything. When a client/trekker first contacts an expedition company what most of the companies do is want to impress him and tell him that each and everything will be provided to the trekker because they want more clients to sign up for the expedition but when it comes to trek you know those are false promises.
Most of the trekkers don’t want everything but it shows what the company wanted to do at that moment. It sort of kills the reliability of the customer and that affects a lot of things.
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- Guides can be a problem more than a solution
The guide is the most essential member of any expedition team he is responsible for the decision-making every day he is the captain he is the one who keeps the morale of the trekker when he is having a hard time or struggling with altitude but unfortunately, the mountain guides in Pakistan they lack passion for the job and they are not educated enough to communicate properly with the clients and they are aged around 40 to 55 so they just do it as a job there is no passion anymore even if there was any when they were young. They have been doing the things in the mainstream for 15-20 years which they feel is the right thing like I said before incompetence is normalised. They don’t have much interest in the mountains. They tell the trekker mostly the wrong information and the guide spends more time in the kitchen than communicating with trekkers about the trek so there really is no connection between the client and the expedition team.
This is one of the basic problems I feel because there are not many guides with the skills they require to be a proper mountain guide
- Gondogoro La has become a 50/50 chance
Gondogoro la is a very challenging pass but in the last 6 7 years with the rescue team and the ropes to help the trekkers it has become a little less challenging and is very doable even in cloudy weather if you have the right expedition team and course the right guide which is I have written before not easy to have on so it’s a very big if! Otherwise, you have to just be very lucky with the weather if it is not clear Mainstream guides usually don’t take that risk and they turn back towards Askole which is a huge disappointment for the trekkers, so if you have signed up for Gondogoro la you should sign up with the right company which has a good record of doing the pass rather than returning on the same route and tour companies are not gonna return your money which they charged for the pass
- Money should be refunded in case of no ascent to the Gondogoro pass
There are more returns to Askole than ascending the pass and going to Hushe but this is never mentioned in the contract you have signed forget about refunding your money and on the terms and conditions page it is written in case of not making the ascent to the Gondogoro the money should not be returned. So this has been going on for 15 to 20 years and no tour company has even tried to bring a change as I mentioned before. It’s a huge disappointment not making the Gondogoro pass and it impacts the morale of the expedition and it is a downer for the trekker
- Increase in porters’ wages and decrease in the weight they carry
The most heartbreaking thing on the trek is seeing the porters carrying 25 30kg without any proper shoes to wear and no carriers to carry the weight they have been doing this for the past 4 5 generations and you really can’t see any proper change in how they carry their weight and how much they earned. Their lives are the same if not changed for the worse. I think the worst problem of all seeing these poor people suffer is the worst form of capitalism. Many foreigners have tried to help them with the money and some tried to educate them but there hasn’t been even a minute effort to change the lives of the porters in a positive way. At least what the government should do is increase some wages for them and decrease the maximum weight they have to carry.
- Don’t just make a tour company
It all starts with what your intentions are, and you get what you deserve from the client’s/trekkers’ review if your sole purpose is just extracting as much money as you can. Of all the companies I know and I think this is not just common in Pakistan, their sole purpose is to attract a client at any cost. They are full of promises without any conviction of delivering the hospitality he/she deserves. The services they promised are not up to what they promised in the beginning. when your sole aim is just making money out of it then you get unsatisfied clients. Also from the client’s point of view research is important before handing out the money blindly and references can be useful of course, never forget to give an honest review about your experience of the tour.
- Need fresh ideas and fresh passionate young people
If we are going to bring these few changes that I have mentioned, I think it needs young people with new ideas who are themselves passionate about trekking and climbing mountains. The change is not gonna come with the old companies and old guides. They have been doing the same old stuff since the 80’s even the most famous companies charge more because they have a name and references in Europe and North America they have been on a loop. The irony is there have been some tour companies with young minds running but with the same old ideas there is nothing fresh and they don’t work for the betterment of the tourism company and like every other company they are just after making more and more money.
I believe we need a fresh start and it’s going to come with fresh start-ups with fresh minds running the show, expedition teams, and young educated guides who have a passion for mountains who know how to communicate in different and difficult circumstances
Ending note
From my experience, these are some of the important things that need to change, and also some of the things on the list are what clients need to know about before coming on this adventure. I could have written about 100 more things, such as the condition of the campsite, so-called bathroom services and of course the cleanliness of the campsites and the list goes on.
I know it’s challenging to have hope and even write about these things but if you think again it’s not much to ask it just needs the right intentions and belief in a change for good for everyone from porters to the trekkers, believing in changing the lives of others who are in need, believing in maintaining glaciers, mountains and protecting your landscapes all is possible with just good intentions.
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