Different possibilities
Whether an agency from abroad:
As a rule, no too many surprises.
Or a Pakistani agency.
We have been offered (best rate) 65 USD/person/day. In the end, it can be more interesting to organize your trek this way.
Of course you have to check everything offered by the agency, if it is all included or if there are extra fees, it is a specialty in Pakistan.
You organize it by yourself, and it is a marathon :
Here is what you have to do (take 2 to 3 days):
First of all, find a guide knowing the trek. The best remains Skardu (see Hispar= problem?). In many hotels of the town, they will introduce you to guides.Talk about the itinerary, sometimes it can be that the way changes, that camps become difficult to reach, etc…
Guide between 1000 and 1200 rps/day. Tips between 2500 and 4000 rps.
Then, hire a team.
If you take a cook, 500 rps/day. Tips, half as much as the guide.
Porters, it is better to hire them in Skardu. See with the guide, they always know people. We paid 7500 rps/ porter for the whole way: Askole-Nagyr. Add 1000 rps for the tips which also includes the wapasi and of course if everything went well, a goat in Hispar (3000 to 4000 rps). Don’t underestimate this bonus ; it is important to the eyes of your team, a boost!
Make sure they have proper gear for carrying weight as well as waterproof drums.
Our team was 1 guide, 1 cook and 7 porters.
You have to be insured. Of you will have thought of getting insurance for this type of activities. Helicopter rescue( good luck to organise this : http://www.askariaviation.com ), death, etc…
More than other treks, you have to insure your team. It is a bit cynical, but a member of your team will only be compensated if he dies. The price of a man’s life is 1000€/porter and 2000 €/guide. Let your team know they are insured, it will be very positive.
To insure them, it is an obstacle course!
There is only one company insuring this type of activities in Pakistan.
ALFA Insurance
Office suite N°18, 2nd floor
Hillview plaza, 76-E Sinnag Avenue
Blue area
Islamabad
Tel : 2274032
Fax : 2274034
Dealing directly with them can be to pull out one’s hair. Go through an agency, they are used to organize this type of provision. Ask your guide.
Include at least 3000 rps to insure ALL your team. You will be sent a certificate, as well as a list to fill out with these details: team members’ names, their birthdates, and identity card number. Send it back when all your team is definitive and BEFORE LEAVING for Askole.
Go to Skardu DC office (police). To go up to Askole, you need their permission. Otherwise, no way you can go through Check Posts. You will have a chance to have a tea with Skardu Deputy Commissioner! Take photocopies of your passports.
Shopping:
For: Olivier & Pascale, 1 guide, 1 cook, 7 porters.
14 jours : Askole – Nagyr.
Sugar |
5 kg |
Powdered milk |
4 kg |
Rice |
20 kg |
| Flower |
40 kg |
| Cooking oil |
6 kg |
| Dahl |
8kg |
| Salt |
1.6 kg |
| Vinegar bottle |
1 |
| Ketchup bottle |
1 |
| Pastas |
1 kg |
| Happy cow |
3 box |
| Soup |
9 |
| Biscuits |
20 box |
| PQ |
6 box |
| lighter |
3 |
| Peach powdered drink |
3 |
| Coffe |
1 |
| Honey |
1 |
| Jam |
2 kg |
| Blue plastic sheet |
1 |
| Stove |
1 |
| Pharmacy |
1 |
| Fuel tank for stove |
30 kg |
Gaz |
8 kg |
Rent material :
1 kitchen tent : 4200 rps
1 kitchen utensils complete set, saucepan, knives…. 4200 rps
1 rope (10m/pers) : 700 rps
1 ice axe : bought 1200 rps
Make 1 first aid kit for the team :
Disinfectant, a few bandages, band aids, eye drops, paracetamol with and without codeine. Antibiotics: amoxiline. Water purification tablets.
Flagyl : Dysentery
Imodium : diarrhoea
It has been a bit tight. Our cook who was taking care of the stock, and helped us out with the shopping, wasn’t really well organized and when it was time to cook, he did as he liked! 40kg of flour, it is a bit too much according to other cooks, and we didn’t have enough! At the end of the shopping day, we didn’t buy that much and we already have too much weight. Of course, we didn’t want to eat only rice and chapattis all along the way…so we managed to take a minimum anyway.
Organize a jeep up to Askole Get 5000 rps ready for a special where you will put all your team. Of course, if you arrive in Askole, be aware that you are lucky. The road is blocked very often. Try to get the information before and negotiate your price according to it.
One last thing to avoid a strike. During the Biafo Hispar crossing, it happens that porters from some teams go on strike. Not surprising, it is hard and they would like to get a bit more.
To anticipate, I included a 1000 rps wapasi, and I promised a goat if everything went fine. We didn’t have this type of problem.
Go to Askole, cross the Check Posts. Leave the day after.
| Hispar = problèms ? |
It is for sure that Biafo – Hispar itinerary is easier this way than the other way around. Hipar Biafo is harder for the porters, it is less regular and they are more loaded.
Actually, we heard about the difficulties that can happen with Hispar people. When, in Hunza, we have been offered to go with a team from this valley, we thought why not ? We will be able to figure out if this reputation is right.
Pascale was a little bit slower, I was waiting for her, and our guide was ahead without worrying too much about us… I am as well a spelunking and canyoneering federal guide, as a rule, I don’t act this way. Anyway, the 2nd time it happened, I thought it was a good thing to let him know because he seemed not to know that a guide remains with his group. It solved the problem. But it would have been the same with any guide.
It is in Hispar that everything started. In fact, we negotiated to go up to Nagyr, and paid for it.
When we arrived in their village, coming out straight from the Middle Age, we thought for a moment that we were in a remake of « The Name of the Rose ». But it was worse, women were avoiding us when we were getting closer, or the ones daring a bit more were turning their back to us. Our team had wished to be paid in their village, and of course someone would be available to go down to Nagyr with us for no extra money ! Of course we didn’t need all the team to go there. They offered us as well to meet the jeep driver who could bring us down the day after…Ok, we accepted, it is only human…and we paid them.
The day after, we were meeting the driver, and it all started to go wrong; 5000 rps (65 €) for 30 km, it is a bit too much. Therefore, we offered them what was decided the day before, to go with someone since we had paid up to Nagyr (of course I would have given a tip on top of it, it’s normal…) and they told us it was 2 stages, 600 rps per stage.
We were going mad! We left walking up to Nagyr, whereas they were laughing their ass off.
Too bad for them, I think that the reputation of Hispar village is for a reason, it is the same for Nagyr (They are conscious of it and they make some efforts).
It is too bad the inhabitants of this valley take the tourist systematically for a milking cow. Anyway, it is our experience and we wanted to share it. If we had to do it again, we would go with Skardu Baltits.
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