Pakistani porters: unsung masters of top mountains

While foreign climbers have won plaudits for their feats, Pakistani mountaineers are largely overlooked

Many Pakistani porters are largely unrecognized despite their achievements. PHOTO: AFP

SHIMSHAL, PAKISTAN:
He is the only man ever to have scaled K2 three times, but Fazal Ali's achievements have gone largely unrecognised, like those of many of his fellow porters who risk life and limb on Pakistan's highest peaks.

As one of the few elite porters in the country specialising in high-altitude expeditions, the 40-year-old has spent nearly two decades on Pakistan's deadliest slopes - plotting routes, lugging kit and cooking for paying clients.

At 8,611 metres (28,251 feet), K2 is not quite as high as Mount Everest, which stands at 8,848 metres. But its technical challenges have earned it the nickname "the Savage Mountain" and dozens have lost their lives on its treacherous, icy flanks.

Two Pakistani mountaineers, among 31 others, conquer K2 peak

Ali conquered K2 in 2014, 2017 and 2018 - all without additional oxygen.

"He is the only climber with this achievement," said Eberhard Jurgalski from Guinness World Records.

While foreign climbers have won plaudits for their feats, Ali and his colleagues are overlooked, even among the mountaineering community.

Fazal Ali. PHOTO: AFP


"I am happy," Ali told AFP. "But I am also heartbroken because my feat will never be truly appreciated."

He is one of many high-altitude porters who work on foreign expeditions to northern Pakistan, a remote region that is home to three of the highest mountain ranges in the world, the Himalayas, the Karakoram and the Hindu Kush.

PHOTO: AFP


Chosen for their endurance and knowledge of the extremely difficult terrain, the porters trace the route for climbers and fix ropes for their ascent. They also carry food and supplies on their backs and pitch their clients' tents.

PHOTO: AFP


However, once the mountaineers return home, the porters - indispensable during expeditions - often feel forgotten.

PHOTO: AFP


"When they arrive, they are full of goodwill, they make many promises," Ali said. "But once they've achieved their goals, they forget everything."

One incident in particular left Ali with a bitter taste in his mouth: he arrived at the summit of K2 with a Western mountaineer, but instead of taking a picture together, she posed alone with a flag in her hand.

"She ordered us to take a picture and stay at a distance," he said, adding the episode led to a dispute between the climber and a Nepali porter who was also there.

Canadian mountaineer falls to death on Pakistan's K2

Ali, like many Pakistani high-altitude porters, was born in the remote Shimshal Valley in the country's north, near the Chinese border.

Home to just 140 families, Ali's village has produced many of the country's greatest mountaineers, including Rajab Shah, the first Pakistani to scale all five 8,000-metre peaks in the country.

Rehmatullah Baig, who conquered K2 in 2014 while taking vital geographical measurements and installing a weather station, also hails from Shimshal and shares Ali's resentment.


"I should be happy, but I'm not," he said.

"If I were recognised, if the mountaineers from ... Pakistan were recognised, or if they enjoyed a bit of recognition or financial assistance, they would climb all the 8,000-metre peaks of the world," he said.

Baig's father was the first from Shimshal to pursue the deadly pursuit of mountaineering, but he now tells his children not to follow in his footsteps.
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