Without wheels, how do goods move around? How do shops stock their
shelves, restaurants stock their pantries, builders stock supplies?
Goods move on foot. Attached to backs. The backs might be attached to
two or four legs.
Sure, some stuff comes in on planes and helicopters, and in 2025,
drones started flying gear up to Everest. But the vast, vast majority of
goods are transported the very old-fashioned way.
Our porter, Mila Dai, carried our two
duffel bags and the giant oxygen canister throughout the trek. When he
got done with out load, he’d find extra work portering back to Namche or
collecting yak dung in the hills around town. (“-Dai” is a
Sherpa-language honorific for respected persons older than oneself; for
those younger, it is “-Bai”. So our guide was, to us, “Bala Bai” and our
porter was “Mila Dai.”)Porters carrying construction materials
up to Namche.Donkey trains carry the majority of goods
in the lower Khumbu, between Lukla and Namche.Above Namche, yak-cow hybrids called
jhopkyos do most of the carrying. Walkers are advised to watch out for
their horns!
Tourists have very mixed feelings about human porters. It’s a hard
job, to be sure. Bala told us that many porters won’t carry water
because that adds weight to their loads, and they want to maximize their
paying loads. At night you can see the porters walking along the trails
with headlamps; it is cooler at night, and if you can’t carry water…
Our guide, Bala Bai, started his career as a porter. Then he became a
high-altitude porter, then a high-altitude technical guide. Now he owns
his own tour company, and his daughters are in private school in
Kathmandu. We think it is quite likely he will end up Mayor of the
Khumbu. So portering is a hard job, but both necessary up in the
mountains and a valid pathway to a better life.
