Porters

Its a common misconception that a sherpa is the same as a porter. This isn't true - a sherpa is a mountain guide, and a group's guide will often hire separately one or more porters who actually do the carrying.

I think I mentioned in a previous post that our luggage is being carried by Yaks, and not by porters, but we still see many porters on our trek and its amazing to see how much they can carry - often overtaking us uphill.

The first photo below shows a group of porters all wearing the same 'uniform' - these have been hired by an expedition and are on their way up to base camp to set up before the foreigners turn up. The second photo is of a group heading up between Lukla and Namche for the weekly market. These guys are probably carrying over 30kg on their backs, but they still manage to make it up the climb faster than our group did last week.

 

They might be almost superhuman in stamina, but even porters need a rest sometimes.