And Death Walks with Them: Above Eight Thousand Metres with Pakistani Porters from Shimshal

by Christiane Fladt

This book throws light on the uncelebrated lives of some of Pakistan's High-altitude Porters (HAPs), who help mountaineers climb the Pakistan-based high mountain peaks. The book primarily discusses the lives and careers of those HAPs who have summited Pakistan-based eight-thousand-metre peaks. The author has attempted to delve into their lives by digging out adventure and drama in their stories, which makes her work a significant contribution on the literature available on this topic. This book will be the first to record the names of the porters alongside those of the more wealthy climbers who hired them.

202 pages, Hardcover

First published July 14, 2014

Reviews

[Ashna Altaf · Rating 4 out of 5]

“They deserve recognition”
These are the starting lines of this book, which talks about High Altitude Porters (HAPs). In Pakistan, where even mountain climbers don’t get the recognition they deserve, these hardworking HAPs, who facilitate the climbers by carrying their loads, fixing ropes for them, helping in crisis, etc. I really appreciate the writer, Faldt, for writing about these unsung heroes.
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This book consists of two parts. The first part gives an overview of Shimshal village, home to most of these HAPs, about the job of climbing as HAPs, about the five 8000m peaks of Pakistan and a brief introduction to the porters interviewed for this book. The second part of this book consists life sketches of various HAPs, whom Fladt interviewed and then compiled the sketches. Photographs of the porters and their achievements are also shared in this book.
The book talks about the need of climbing by these HAPs, that is, to finance their families. Also, these HAPs have a passion for climbing. The various HAPs narrative their stories, of achievements, tragedies, toil, facing crazy clients at times, and watching death up close. They give an idea about what life is, up there, in the mountains.
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What I loved about this book is that the writing style is good, the author is honest about all the info she gathered and missed, stories are not repeated too much. The thing that wasn’t okay was that at some places, chunks of important info were missing, and at times, they kinda had cliffhangers. Overall, a good book for those interested in knowing about the lives of climbers, HAPs and the info of high mountains of Pakistan.

[Imalah Akhund · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I started reading this book I checked out goodreads for any reviews or rating, surprisingly the book had only one rating and no review. I have never seen this with any other book or don't know anyone who has had a similar experience. Infact I didn't even know there was such a thing as High Altitude Portering.

Every now and then we hear about the great mountaineers (and rightly so) who cover great peaks in so and so time but the people who assist them in carrying out these expeditions often go unnoticed, unnamed and unrewarded. There is next to zero recognition or reward by government for these people, which is a sad thing because these people are usually uneducated and not so well-to-do financially. Based on the interviews Christiane Fladt conducted her herself with the help of an interpreter, the book sheds light on the lives and careers of 18 of these HAPs (High Altitude Porters) from Shimshal, a village of Hunza District, in the Gilgit–Baltistan region of Pakistan.

The chapters sometimes felt like I was reading the same chapter again and again, there wasn't much difference in the stories, most of them left school at an early age to provide for their families, they had no proper training and etc; but I guess that is kind of reflective of a simple rural life. The book was pretty accessible and engaging to read otherwise except that I wish there was a map printed in the book because the landmarks were mentioned so many times that I just think it would be easier and more fun for me to be able to keep track of places.

[Lee Harrison · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have visited Shimshal a couple of times, as well as climbed in the area, so this book was naturally of interest to me. It was an easy read that held my attention throughout, although the format was a little repetitive, and it didn't really go anywhere in the form of a conclusion. The chapters were often a little sparce on detail which, as the author pointed out at the start of the book, was often due to porters not providing or remembering much about the climbs. I would liked to have seem more fact-checking with other members of the expeditions to get their input and views to fill in the gaps. I would say this was worth reading for anybody with enough interest in the subject matter, although from a biographical perspective the format and depth of material compares poorly to the standards set by Bernadette Mcdonald for example.