The cheap way up from Mars is underneath the Phobos tether. That's the equator. Note that if we're not paying Phobos its vig then we have to hit the Deimos tether, more expensive; or just run up to the ecliptic directly. Same if we ever get the Iron Ring. Problem: desert.
How to get water to the surface spaceports will be a problem, I believe. We can imagine all manner of mining-camps and self-sufficient towns up by the mid-latitude glaciers but trade with the outside Solar System will be a pest.
At the equator non-hydrogen fuel to boost to the tether will be a near-commandment; as, I suspect, will be the tether itself. Some hydrogen might be salvageable from the perchlorate poisons in the soil. Mostly this stuff must be recycled.
Beyond that, I'm unsure about aqueducts. They'd run for an unreasonable distance to get to the port. Furthermore keeping the water in liquid form will be more expensive per-kilometer than a pipeline would be on Earth. Do we do pipelines for LNG here? I doubt it; I think we just burn the gas near the spout and export the electricity to the grid. Or truck it.
Trucking ice from midlatitude seems a waste. I don't see aircraft of balloons working to scale.
Hurling ice from base-to-base, in Mars' low gravity and air-pressure, might work. As spears. With series of mass-drivers. Or catapults?
Also to be considered is draining Phobos for its hydrogen - I mean, we don't even really want that damoclevan sword up there.
OR JUST DIG FOR IT 10/28: The big ice blocks from 20 m down, 25° north imply ice 'neath th'equator, too [UPDATE 1/18/23 called it!]. I'll leave this poast as a monument to my lack of faith. Although: other midlatitude ores can be hurled over here for transport upward.
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