The most undersung staff of Kilimanjaro climbs (compared with the guides and the cooks), the porters are essential to climbers' success on the mountain. Porters work extremely hard carrying all of your things up the mountain and work for incredibly low wages by Western standards. It's a comment on how poor much of Tanzania is that these men work as hard as they do for such low wages--about $8 per day.
Above: porters are dividing the group's gear, including the climbers' overnight bags, for the hike to the first night's camp. The porters carry around 10 to 20 pounds on their backs and another 50 pounds balanced on their heads or sometimes over their neck and shoulders.
On one trip, I advised clients to bring bags that had shoulder straps so the porters could carry the bags more easily on their backs. Instead, porters tied the bags to other items and put the entire load on their heads!
Above: A porter heads up through the forest to the Lemosho Glades camp. The porter's personal items are in the small pack on his back--the remainder is group gear.
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