HREBIENOK: A local mountain guide carrying 100kgs on his back was first up a Slovak mountain in a race celebrating the last remaining “Sherpas” in Europe, who supply mountain huts with whatever they can carry on their backs.

Many high-altitude cabins in Slovakia’s High Tatras — Europe’s smallest Alpine range — rely on porters instead of cable cars or helicopters to bring them supplies due to lower costs and strict environmental regulations.

Unlike the Himalayan sherpas famed for helping guide mountaineers up Mt Everest and carrying their gear, Slovakia’s alpine porters only deliver beer, water and food to the string of mountain huts scattered through the range, where the tallest peak reaches 2,655 metres above sea level.

Most of Slovakia’s “sherpas” are part-timers though there are a handful who have spent most of their lives supplying the huts in the range that forms a natural border between Slovakia and Poland. Thousands of skiers and hikers visit the region each year.

Published in Dawn, May 30th, 2017