Vertical Explorers Expeditions Treks & Tours skardu

We hired Vertical Explorers’ services for K2-GGLA trek in Pakistan. It was a horrible experience. First upon our arrival in Skardu they put us up in a guest house where there was no electricity or water. Then the guide that they had provided us fell ill and left us two days after starting the trek and the company didn’t send us a replacement guide for the remainder of our trek despite us informing them immediately by making a very expensive satellite phone call that cost us $250/-. In addition to that, they did not provide a medical kit that they had promised us and the tents that they provided us leaked water and collapsed under the weight of the snow at Concordia. We had to beg for and get a tent from another group in order to survive the next night in the brutally cold conditions. They also did not provide enough porters for our trip which resulted in our porters to struggle under the excessive weight that they ended up carrying and could not keep pace with other groups. This resulted in our group having to sometimes camp outside the boundaries of regular campsites along the way. Upon our return to Islamabad, when we confronted the owner, Syed, with all this information, he promised to make amends and even offered to refund us the money that he had charged us for the trip. But two months have now passed since our trip and there has been no refund. Stay away from Vertical Explorers if you want to go on a trip in Northern Pakistan. They will cut corners to save money and are non responsive if you run into any issues to the extent that your life could be in danger due to their criminal negligence.

I’m writing this because I’m concerned about other people and about their safety. I’m 68 years old and I have a lot of experience in high mountains. I hike on a daily basis. I also know a lot about equipment and because of that I’m still alive. What happened to me and to my friends is not acceptable. Vertical Explorers should lose their license. Sooner or later someone is going to pay with their life. In my opinion this agency has to be out of the business immediately. They are not doing anything good for tourists and for Pakistan as a country. In my long life I have never experienced the type of negligence I experienced with Vertical Explorers. I am ashamed about the president of Vertical Explorers who had the gall to offer me another trek with them for free. Here’s my story. A few weeks ago I came back home from my trip to Pakistan, to the Karakoram region. That trip was supposed to be the trip of my life. Instead it was a nightmare I want to forget as soon as possible. I started preparations for the trip over two years ago. Because of COVID I had to postpone until the Summer of 2022. Since that time I thought I knew Syed Habibullah. I was so happy to work with him. I started to learn the truth about him and about his agency (Vertical Explorers) from the first day in Pakistan. When I arrived in Islamabad he didn’t wait for me at the airport as he had promised. Instead, he was late about two hours. He left me in a cheap guest house and during the first evening he took me to a dirty restaurant. The next morning he picked up and drove me and my three hiking partners to the airport to fly to Skardu. The flight was delayed. Because of that we did not have enough time to apply for hiking permits and so we stayed in Skardu for two nights. Mister Syed’s local partners in Skardu left us in a very cheap hotel. We didn’t have access to electricity or even water! We ordered some food for which we waited about 3 hours. We informed his local partners that we are not going to stay here another night. Next place was a little bit better, at least we had running water. Next morning we left Skardu for our long drive to Askole. On the way there they kept making us pay extra money because of “new circumstances”. Each of us paid around 10-12 thousand rupees. New circumstances are two destroyed bridges. No other agency charged their clients for these “new circumstances”. At Askole when I saw our tents I knew it was not looking good. I have to add, I am an experienced hiker. I prefer to be alone and spend about 6 months under my tents every year. I did high altitude trails in USA, Peru, Bolivia, Nepal… . Some of them were organized. The second night of camping we had the first rain and my sleeping bag (Feathered Friends) was completely wet and dirty by the morning. My brand new sleeping pad (Therm a rest neo air) was in worse condition. This cost me a lot of money and a lot of pain because I always take good care of my things. The next night my hiking partner and I got a tent from the owner of the Paiu camp but only for that night. It was our third hiking day. In the morning of the third day our guide became sick and left us. It was still the beginning of the trek. We were charged for the guide but we got a new one on our last day of the trail. Mister Syed had not provided us enough food, and we didn’t have enough porters. Those great people were overused, they had to carry 40-45 kg per person. First few days these porters were always late because of the extra weight. We were not provided any medication. We had no access to emergency phone. We borrowed a satellite phone from another group to inform Mr Syed about our situations of insufficient porters, sick guide, and a leaking tent. We paid 250 USD for that call. That call didn’t do anything good as he totally ignored us. Thank God all my partners had Pakistani backgrounds. Because of the disaster with the trek we became close friends. We helped each other and we worked closely with the great supporting team. Mr Syed did absolutely nothing to resolve our situations. No person from the support group spoke English. When we got to Concordia the situation was even worse. 4580 meters altitude, steady rain and wind. Two of us were still using the very cheaply built, leaking tent. Together with our porters we tried to use some plastic to protect it. I started to be more and more depressed. During the first day in Concordia because of bad weather and shortage of supplies we decided we are not going to continue to Gondogoro La. Like most of the other groups we will return the same way we came to Concordia. But we had to sleep one more night in Concordia camp. The weather was becoming worse and worse. Next morning we woke up to winter. The tent was few centimeters from my face because of the amount of snow weighing it down. My partner during that night escaped to the kitchen tent to sleep with the kitchen crew in dry and warm conditions. One of our members had to beg the CKNP agency team at Concordia for a better tent. Happily we returned to Askole after a few days of hiking. We had to organize our return and paid for it. Zero support from Mr Syed. When we return to Islamabad we requested a meeting with him. We introduced him a 3 page long report. Our leader talked. In his response Mr Syed blamed everyone except himself and his agency. We didn’t hear the words – I AM SORRY. That evening he took me to another cheap and dirty restaurant. I was so frustrated and so stupid and I ate what he ordered. During my trips to countries like Pakistan I do not eat at restaurants. This mistake cost me the worst food poisoning in my 68 years. Never before I was so close to dying. Of course thanks God I had an antibiotic with me (cipronex). Vertical Explorers during this trek presented the lowest standard from all the trekking agencies. They don’t think about their clients as they are greedy, cheap and happily cut corners at the expense of their clients. Their equipment is old and in very bad condition. As a person Mr Syed looks like the business he runs: irresponsible, incompetent, and criminally negligent. If anyone plans to go to Pakistan they better stay away from vertical explosions (this is the title Pakistani guides used). I saw a lot of great and 100% responsible agencies during the trek and spoke to their happy customers and local people who happily work for them. Kaz