Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index A Sirdar is a Sherpa mountain guide who manages all the other Sherpas in a climbing expedition or trekking group. The Sirdar is typically the most experienced guide and can usually speak English fluently. The Sirdar's responsibilities include: assigning responsibilities to the other guides. hiring and paying local porters purchasing local food during the trek/expedition making the final decision regarding route choices handling other trip logistics such as dealing with government officials or police The normal progression to Sirdar usually involves starting as a porter, working their way up to being a kitchen assistant, on to an assistant guide and then finally to Sirdar. Sirdars do not normally carry loads but will do so on occasion such as carrying the pack of a client who is having difficulties from altitude sickness. Also a Sirdar was a rank equivilent to Comander in Chief, in the 19th Century Egyptian Army. This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.