As I shared in my email response to you, my article was written to potential trekkers and my numbers reflect “client” statistics.
My goal was to get more trekkers to the top safely.

The numbers you suggest about porters is probably real but truth about porter and guide deaths is very difficult to research. The “powers that be” that run the mountain and some trekking companies don’t want negitive press that could keep the 30,000 trekkers for coming every year.

Consider this rough math; The park charges $50 per day for camps and $60 per day just to be on the mountain. That’s $110 per day times an average trek at 9 days (up & down) times 30,000 annual people equals, $29,700,000. Add to that a one time $20 fee per person for “rescue” equals $600,000 every year. A wopping $30,300,000 and you haven’t hired a guide or stayed at a hotel or bought food or flown to Tanzania from anywhere. A huge industry to say the least.

You will not hear too much negitive discussion about porter/guide deaths but they are very real.

To me, this points to using good outfitters that take care of porters and guides.

I also find myself wondering, with all that money being made, why can’t the park build better outhouses? Oh well…I picked an outfitter that carried their own.

Thanks for your considered comments.

Have a great day!