A porter on the Baltoro carries 25 kilograms — the load limit agreed by the Central Karakoram porters' union — over eight to nine days from Askole to Concordia, at altitudes rising to 4,600 metres, in boots that are frequently not adequate.
The rate is set per stage rather than per day, which matters, because a strong porter can double up on stages. Insurance became mandatory for expedition porters in the early 2000s and is still enforced unevenly. Operators who pay above the rate say so; operators who do not, do not mention it at all.
The question worth asking any operator running a Baltoro trip is not what the trek costs. It is what the porters are paid, whether they are insured, and what happens if one of them is injured at Urdukas. The answers vary more than the prices do.
This is not a Pakistani problem specifically — the same conversation has run for decades in Nepal. But the Baltoro is longer, higher and colder than most Himalayan approaches, and the margin for a badly equipped man at 4,600 metres is narrow.
