Porters: The unsung heroes of mountaineering

| Friday May 31, 2013 00:00

 

It is like a scene from a slavery film; black men hiking in a painstaking queue with heavy brown sacks hanging from their necks and hefty backpacks. They hold big water bottles with both hands. These are porters - the unsung heroes of every high mountain hiking expedition. Ask anyone who has ever climbed a high mountain and they will concur that these are the real heroes for every hiker.

These are men and (more recently) women who carry all the climbers' supplies as they attempt, for whatever reasons, to stand on top of the high peaks. I was one of the beneficiaries of the services of these people when I climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro in 2011. Let me commend these poor souls this week when the world celebrates the first conquest of the highest peak on earth, by Edmund Hillary (British) and Tenzing Norgay (Nepalese) six decades ago. Norgay actually started as a porter. When entering Kilimanjaro Park, nervously excited about the daring challenge that lies ahead, there are men in jackets, ready and waiting to be hired to carry up supplies and every load that needs to be taken up the mountain. This over-supply of personnel has led to cheap labour, aggravated by Tanzania's high unemployment rate. When I climbed Kilimanjaro, porters were willing to risk their life for meager wages and without proper gear.

Tanzania Parks intervened to improve the slavery-like conditions for the porters and stem rising deaths. The authorities prescribed that every climber must have at least three porters and a guide.So with Pako Lesejane, Yours Truly started up Kilimanjaro with one guide and six porters.  All porters line up at the park check-up point where their huge sacks and bags are weighed to ensure that they are carrying the set weight. Porters are allowed to carry a maximum of 20kg. We only got introduced to our porters at the first night stop at Mandara Huts. Our guide, Raymond Mtui introduced the team. He brought in three relatives, Innocent Mtui (assistant guide), Cosmas Mtui (waiter) and Robert Mtui (porter). Others were the chief cook, Joachim Minja, Dennis Meela and Tadeus Kisamd (porters). All these men had specific roles to ensure that Pako and I reach Uhuru Peak alive.

Raymond is a qualified mountain guide who was with us throughout the climb. His role made him the 'managing director' of the expedition. He narrated the legends of Kilimanjaro and what the mountain meant to him. He has climbed it 'many' times. He said counting is for tourists. This is the man who controlled our pace, our drinking (water and later a concoction of river water, Redbull and Berocca tablets - we did what we had to do). Raymond observed our urinating sequence and frequency. While climbing Kilimanjaro, if one does not urinate often and do the Number Two every night, there is a big problem. His constant words throughout the climb were: 'Pole, Pole, guys (slowly, slowly). 'You are doing great, keep drinking guys'. Like junior officers in the army, we took his encouragements and urges as 'orders'. We paid big money for this and since there was no refund on an unsuccessful hike, it was in our best interests to follow his orders. Drinking became a habit as we walked like pensioners.

At every rest camp there is a kitchen area where Joachim our cook did his magic. All climbers have their own Joachim. Climbing a mountain is a taxing exercise. The body needs a lot of energy to keep up with the climbing, the diminishing oxygen and the changing temperatures. Joachim prepared the best food needed in this situation.He served a three-course meal comprising of soup as a starter, usually pasta as a main course and dessert. The food was served by the quiet but ever smiling Cosmas - expedition waiter. He was the man that woke us up from our sleeping bags early in the cold morning and gave us hot water to wash our faces and brush our teeth before we packed up.

Then at the dining hall, he would bring Joachim's coffee with bread and soup before huge pasta was served.Raymond would be sitting beside us, probing our health status and making sure that we finished our food.He never rushed us. Everything was 'pole, pole'. There was that eyeballing moment where you felt he was testing the determination and fright level in us. When we restarted the climb, our bags were packed and left by the entrance of our huts where porters Tadeus, Dennis and Robert would carry them to the next camp. The luggage contained sleeping bags, toiletry and more gear for harsh weather on summit night, Joachim's stove, water, food, utensils and bathing bowls, oxygen cylinder, first aid box and extra gear.  The porters remained at Kibo Hut, the last base camp before the grueling summit-night ascent. Raymond was joined by Innocent (assistant guide) for the final stretch to reach Africa's highest peak.

We each carried our daypacks, containing water, that energy mixture, snacks and cameras. The guides were carrying more water, First Aid kit and oxygen cylinders. Raymond led the pack, with me behind him and ahead of Pako while Innocent was the sweeper. It was an unhurried climb in the dark night with headlamps illuminating the zigzag tracks going up. Somewhere towards sunrise, experiencing disorientation, fatigue and headaches due to high altitude, I asked Raymond to carry my camera that was now wearing me down. He obliged and asked Pako whether he needed help too. Pako was okay.

After we reached the creator rim at Gilman's Point, Raymond delegated the lead to Innocent. He ducked behind some rock and waved to Innocent to guide us to Uhuru Peak while he caught his breath. The guides and porters were not immune to mountain sickness. It was an hour and half to get there and even though we were sickly, we were also excited because we had passed the toughest point. We reached Uhuru Peak at 7:03am. More climbers arrived and their guides assumed the role of their photographers as everyone wanted a picture standing next to the monument congratulating them for reaching Uhuru Peak at 5,895m the highest point in Africa. On our descent, we met two porters painfully approaching the summit while supporting a sick white climber shoulder-to-shoulder. It was almost like the porters were guardian angels taking the sick climber to God's altar.