As the world celebrates the 50th anniversary of the first conquering of Mount Everest in May 1953, hundreds of porters who assisted the climbers ”behind the scenes” remain largely forgotten.
A great number of Nepalese workers were employed by the British expedition led by Colonel John Hunt to carry climbing gear including large oxygen cylinders to the 5 500-metre-high Mount Everest Base Camp.
These porters fade into insignificance as the limelight shines brightly on the climbers themselves, even though many of the Sherpas lugging equipment up the mountain also end up climbing the peaks.
Carrying equipment and other climbing gear weighing at least 35kg and usually much more on their backs like beasts of burden, the porters make their slow but steady way up the steep mountain slopes along narrow slippery paths and across rapidly flowing mountain rivers to ease the way for the hero and heroine climbers.
But what do they get in return? Just their daily meagre wage, which today amounts to 350 Nepalese rupees (about $4,5), but of course was substantially less in the 1950s and 1960s.
However, in poverty stricken Nepal, jobs are hard to come by and carrying heavy loads on your back even for the meagre daily wage is better than sitting idle and doing nothing.
Not only Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, pioneers of the Everest climb in 1953, owe a debt of gratitude to these mostly ignored and neglected porters. Indeed all climbers in the Nepal Himalayas should be thankful to them.
”It may seem like they just carry goods for a fee but the fact is that it is a difficult and sometimes dangerous job,” says an official of the Nepalese Tourism Ministry handling all mountaineering activities in the Himalayan kingdom.
The Nepalese porters continue to play a yeoman’s role in mountaineering activities in the Himalayan Kingdom. Whether the mountain is big or small, all aspiring climbers need their services.
A former president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association said this is because there is no road access to any of the Himalayan foothills and therefore no alternative to using human porters.
”There are at least 20 porters for each climber on an Everest expedition,” said Lakpha Soman Sherpa, managing director of Thamserku Trekking Company, one of Nepal’s largest handlers of climbing expeditions. The number of porters required becomes higher for specialised expeditions such as for filming or medical, he
said.
Porters in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s had to take a long and difficult route from a township near the Nepalese capital to the Everest Base Camp, with the journey taking almost a month.
But things changed after an airstrip was built at Lukla on the foothills of Mount Everest and planes began ferrying climbers and equipment there directly.
Eventually though plane services to Lukla run by state-owned Royal Nepal Airlines became unreliable and crowded, so most climbers preferred to trek to Everest from a place called Jiri, about 90km northeast of the capital.
Jiri is accessible by road from the capital through Chinese and Swiss built roads. But from Jiri porters still have to be used and it takes almost two weeks to reach the Base Camp.
But fewer and fewer land porters are increasingly required for the Everest expeditions.
”This is because private airlines came into operation in the 1990s and they were more reliable and carried the climbers and equipment all the way to Lukla,” said Soman Sherpa.
It is a five-day journey from Lukla to the Base Camp but hardly any porters are used as the equipment is carried on two sets of animals.
”For the difficult part of the journey from 3 000 metres up to the Base Camp at 550 metres, we use the yaks to carry the expedition’s loads,” according to Sonam Sherpa.
”We cannot bring the yaks down to Lukla as they develop ”low altitude sickness” and die below 3 000 metres. So we use a cross-breed between a yak and cow to ferry the loads from Lukla up to the height of around 3 000 metres,” he said. But for the more delicate equipment human porters are still used, he added.
At least for the foreseeable future, it seems certain the unsung heroes of the ultimate Himalayan adventure will continue to be used, albeit quietly, by climbing expeditions and trekkers from across the globe. – Sapa-DPA