Why We Are Not KPAP Certified
We made that choice deliberately. Here is exactly why.
We are going to say something that most Kilimanjaro operators would never say out loud. We are not KPAP certified. We made that choice deliberately. And we think you deserve to know exactly why.
The Man in the Cream Shoes
Jenson and I were descending from our first Kilimanjaro attempt. We were ahead of the rest of the group, somewhere on the path between Millennium Camp and the exit gate, a section that is steep, wet, and demands grip from every step.
We saw him resting at the side of the trail.
He was a small man carrying an enormous pack, tent poles balanced across the top, the whole thing comically, heartbreakingly oversized for his frame. We stopped and asked if he was ok. He said he was fine. He smiled. He said Jambo. Because that is what porters do on this mountain, they smile and they keep moving regardless of what they are carrying or what they are carrying it in.
It was Toni who said it first when we met her further down the slope.
"Did you see the guy with the shoes?"
We had seen the shoes. Cream coloured slip-ons. Hard leather. Probably plastic soles with zero grip. Already wrecked. The kind of shoes you might wear to a job interview or a night out. Not the kind of shoes you wear on a wet mountain path at altitude carrying a load twice your body weight.
​
Jenson and I looked at each other and said nothing. There was nothing to say. My feet were already hurting inside four hundred dollar boots specifically designed for exactly this terrain. He must have felt like he was walking on skates.
​
He worked for one of the larger operators on the mountain. That is what made it worse. Not a small rogue operator cutting every corner. One of the established names.
We asked Zizu about it at the bottom. He was not shocked. He was not particularly surprised. He just said: that is the way it is on the mountain. If you need to work, you need to work.
​
That sentence has stayed with us. I can still see those shoes. I will always be able to see those shoes. And everything we have built at Vertical Sky since that day has been built in response to them.
The Problem With Minimum Standards
The Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project exists to protect porters. It sets minimum standards for pay, equipment and load weights. Some form of organisation is better than no organisation.
​
But here is the honest truth about minimum standards: they become the ceiling, not the floor.
​
Operators join KPAP, pay exactly what KPAP says is the minimum, put the badge on their website, and call themselves ethical. The porters are still underpaid — just less obviously so. The badge does not tell you what the operator actually pays. It tells you they have agreed to pay at least a certain amount. Those are very different things.
There is another problem that nobody talks about. Many porters do not know what the KPAP minimum rates are. And even those who do know have very limited power to enforce them. If a porter challenges an operator on pay, the operator finds someone else. There is no shortage of people who need the work. That is the structural reality of this industry and a badge of membership does not fix it.
We pay roughly fifty percent above KPAP minimum rates across all crew. Not because we were told to. Because it is what the work is worth. We do not hide behind a certification to justify paying less.
The $1,800 Kilimanjaro Expedition
If you see a Kilimanjaro expedition advertised for $1,800, ask yourself one question: where is that money going?
​
The national park fees are fixed. They are the same for every operator. The equipment costs roughly the same. The logistics cost roughly the same. The only variable that can be squeezed to get the price that low is the wages of the people carrying everything up the mountain.
​
Companies offering expeditions at that price point should not be on the mountain. There is no margin in that transaction to pay guides and porters properly. The crew become entirely dependent on tips, and then consider this. Every climber signs a document at the gate stating they are carrying no more than two hundred dollars in cash. Some people take that seriously. There is no cash machine at the exit gate. So where exactly is the generous tip coming from?
​
It is not. In many cases, it simply is not.
What We Ask You To Do
Before you book any Kilimanjaro expedition, with us or anyone else, have a real conversation with the operator. Not about the route or the food or the accommodation. About the porters.
Ask them what they pay their crew above the KPAP minimum. Ask them what equipment they provide. Ask them what happens if a porter's boots are not suitable for the mountain.
​
If they get vague, that is your answer.
​
And when you come back from your climb, whatever you write in your review, whoever you climbed with, write about the porters. Not just whether they got you to the summit. Write about whether they looked properly equipped. Write about whether the guide seemed fairly treated. Write about whether you felt comfortable with what you saw.
​
Reviews change industries. Yours could change this one.
What Vertical Sky Does Differently
Our head guide Zidane Juma, Zizu, is not an employee. He is a co-founder and director of Vertical Sky. Every decision about how this company operates, including how we pay and equip our crew, is made with him not for him.
​
Every porter and guide who works with Vertical Sky is properly equipped before they set foot on the mountain. Boots that are right for the terrain. Clothing that is right for the temperature. Load weights that are right for the human being carrying them.
​
We pay fifty percent above the industry minimum across all crew rates. We do not do this because a certification told us to. We do it because we met a man in cream leather slip-on shoes on a wet mountain path and we have never been able to forget him.
"If you are prepared to work in those shoes, you can work for me. In proper equipment."
One Last Thing
We genuinely do not have all the answers. The porter welfare problem on Kilimanjaro is structural and complicated and one ethical operator cannot fix it alone. KPAP is trying to do something and some form of organisation is better than none.
​
But we know what we saw. We know what those shoes looked like. We know what Zizu meant when he said if you need to work, you need to work.
​
And we know that booking with an operator who pays properly, equips properly, and tells you the truth about all of it is the most direct thing you can do to make this better.
​
That is what Vertical Sky is. That is why we built it
Book your expedition at vertical-sky.com — and ask us anything.