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Imagine a job where you get paid $8 per day for hard, physical labor, exposing yourself to potentially life-threatening conditions and long-term health hazards. You carry a 65-pound load on a heavy wooden pack frame for eight hours, eat a spartan meal of tea and chappati (flat bread) at the end of the day, then sleep in the snow huddled under a tarp with your co-workers. Now imagine that you can't sleep. Your eyes are swollen and painful from wearing sunglasses with little or no UV protection, and your feet are cold and blistered from climbing on loose scree and snow in canvas army surplus sneakers.

This scenario is the status quo for the Balti porters who carry loads for climbing and trekking groups in the Karakorum Range of the Himalayas. Expeditions are required to provide the porters with a standard equipment kit: one pair each of shoes, sunglasses, socks and gloves. The "porter kits" for expeditions climbing on the south side of K2 or other peaks in Pakistan are typically purchased in either Rawalpindi or Skardu for about $8. The price reflects the quality of the items. Higher quality items are not available.

In 1998, Heidi Howkins launched "The SupPorters Fund" to solicit the in-kind contributions that would enable her to set a new precedent for the treatment of Balti porters. Her goal was to prove that it is possible to be a responsible employer, and ultimately to enable other expeditions to do the same.

With generous contributions from Montrail (hundreds of pairs of quality footwear), Bolle (glacier glasses with 100% UV protection), Fox River (Merrino wool socks and gloves), Dana Designs (padded backpack-harnesses designed to carry blue shipping barrels), and Power Bar (funds for shipping), the project has been a success for the past three years.

The K2000 team will be approaching K2 through China, where transport is provided by camels, so distribution of the equipment for this year is being coordinated through Greg Mortensen and the Central Asia Institute in Skardu, Pakistan. For the year 2001, the goals of The SupPorters Project are to: (1) continue to provide quality equipment for the Balti porters, with an emphasis on those who enroll in the safety training program offered by the Central Asia Institute, (2) find a rope sponsor to support an effort to fix ropes on the Gondogoro La, an 18,000-foot pass where several fatalities occur each year, and (3) raise the funds that are required for shipping.

Those interested in contributing should contact the Central Asia Institute at 406 585-7841 or [email protected].

— Hiedi Howkins, MountainZone.com Correspondent