Superhuman Tragedy

A Porter's Life. Superhuman Tragedy. This series is a dedication to depicting the incredibly arduous lives of porters in the Khumbu region of Nepal. It's a passion project of sorts. An issue I care deeply about and want to use my imagery and storytelling to hopefully generate awareness and ultimately real change that improves the lives of the porters in the Khumbu.

Last month (November 2018) Guiding on route to Everest Base Camp, I was profoundly struck by the daily struggles for so many local porters. It had me questioning on so many levels. Why must they carry such insanely heavy loads? How do they even humanly carry so much weight? How am I contributing to this? What dreams do they have? Can they even stand up straight or lay down flat to sleep at night? What can we as visitors do to improve their plight? How many years does this work cut off of their lives? Who looks after them? The list goes on... I spoke at large with my local guides about this issue. They were former porters and would stop on the trail to document their lives and hardships too...questioning them...”How much are you carrying? Who allowed you to carry this much? Also poignantly pleading ...'We understand...but care for yourself...for your health and family'. For me...I felt helpless. I don't have answers but have many thoughts. I know it affected me deeply. I told my guides and local friends I would document some of these struggles through my imagery. In turn, they will highlight these at the big tourism convention in Nepal in 2020 to see if some of these issues can be addressed.
I want to start it off by merely showing a common load seen numerous times daily on the trails. Over 200 pounds on a 5 foot 125 pound frame. 9 feet high by 6 feet wide. 12-15 hours a day between 9-15 thousand feet above sea level. Let it sink in. I encourage you to share your thoughts with me. Especially if you have seen this first-hand anywhere.

Distressingly Cracked.

Carrying over 105 kilos (230 pounds) in worn rubber flip flops. I first encountered him heading up the trail to Namche. My friend Jagat, a former porter himself asked the man why he was carrying this unreal load. He's impossibly poor, has 12 kids and no education. He's paid 60 rupees per kilo (50 cents). On this trip he's making around $55 in total. The trip is 4-6 days 12-17 hours a day at high altitude.

For the next few hours, we see him during rest stops. It deeply pains me watching him. I quietly pull aside Jagat and pull out $20 USD to give to the man while also explaining that I'd like him to at least buy himself a new pair of shoes. The man coyly yet gratefully accepts hardly making eye contact in part because of the load that weighs down his neck. He gently shakes my hand. I give him the most empathetic of gazes. It's all I could muster.
A week or so later, we are heading down. I freeze. Those feet. They were indelibly tattooed in my mind and soul. The pain within those calloused crevices. I felt a burning sensation in my feet. I call to Jagat, "That's the same guy." He's heading up carrying another impossibly heavy load. This time 110 kilos (242 pounds) in the same flip flops. Clearly, he hadn't bought new shoes. Most likely he bought food for his family. Jagat asks if he bought shoes; he hesitantly nods yes . Discernibly he hasn't. Other porters who know him chime in saying he doesn't know how to wear shoes. He's never worn them in his life. Each journey is surely cutting year's off this man's life. It's unacceptable, and I felt responsible. He carries loads of food for us travelers. A tear slowly sneaks down my cheek. It's my heart speaking because my mouth won't work. With the gentlest of touches, I rest my hand on the man's shoulder conjuring up the deepest of human emotions. It's pure empathy. I don't know what to do. Lisa Kristine has said When people think of slavery, they think of an era from the distant past. Grainy photographs from Civil War times. And yet it goes on." How true it rings.

Anguish.

Lugging up 210 pounds. There's much to be told in this series, but I'm letting the photo speak for this one.

Simply Keep Going.

230 pounds pushes the body forward with unrelenting force. A freight train unable to swiftly cease. Lonesome and solemn. Eyes fixated on the dusty path. The neck frozen stiff in place. Sweat trickles down the brow perpetually burning the eyes. A laborious life that leaves the spine unaligned and surely abridges one's expectancy The body tacitly screams pleading to stop. No option to rest. The family needs to eat.
Norman Heglund, a muscle physiologist of Belgium's University de Louvain spent half a year in Nepal studying porters in the region trying to determine how they carry so much weight. His summation after spending thousands of hours on the trails..."They haven't got any trick, they simply go and keep going." Heglund offered porters lemonade and cookies to stop and let him and his team of scientists weigh the load and walk a 10-foot platform constructed out of plates with electronic systems that that measured force and how much effort went into each stride. The only real difference they found between porters and average European graduate students was their muscles were moderately more efficient turning oxygen to work. It remains a mystery. Many believe it's what they know. From an early age, they are carrying heavy loads in their daily lives which perhaps attunes them into these incredible machines. However, long term effects on the body have not been adequately studied and based on my own observations...there's surely degradation and extreme prolonged pain and trauma.

Sherpa

A common misconception surrounds the word "Sherpa." Many believe Sherpa equates to porter. People often believe the porters in the Andes or on Kilimanjaro as Sherpa. This is incorrect. Sherpa i are the ethnic group of some 150,000 people who inhabit the Solu-Khumbu District of Nepal (Everest Region). Sherpa, or Sharwa as they are also called translates to "Easterner," which references the Khams region of Eastern Tibetan where they migrated from roughly 600 years ago seeking the mystical eden of Shangra-La and opportunities to improve their lives.

Historically they are a trading, herding and agrarian based society that is has a mixture of Buddhist and animistic beliefs. Over the centuries, they have adapted to high altitude living and are evolutionary built for the high altitude. Until the onset of modern mountaineering in the 20th century, Sherpa people did not climb Everest or the high peaks in the region. They believed the mountains to be sacred and had no calling to summit or 'conquer' them. When mountaineering and high-altitude trekking became big business, the Sherpa were a natural fit to carry heavy loads and thrive in mountaineering roles. Today, it is relatively lucrative for a Sherpa to be a high altitude climbing porter or Guide. In a 2-3 month season, they can make $3,000-$6,000 in a country where the median yearly income is roughly $1,000. About a third (94) of the overall 290 deaths climbing Everest have been Sherpa. It's incredibly dangerous. Folks pay big bucks to get to the top with the assistance of Sherpas paving the way setting all of the ladders and lines to the summit and carrying oxygen tanks and gear. Not all Sherpa are mountaineers or porters. Some 5,000 Sherpa also live abroad. Increasingly, more and more ethnic groups from around Nepal are working as porters and even some as climbing porters, so not everyone you see in the Solu-Khumbu is a Sherpa.

Gelid Morning.

The gelid morning breeze whispers keep moving. The body tacitly screams otherwise. No option to rest. The family needs to eat. Down to pick up another impossibly heavy load. A laborious life that leaves the spine unaligned and surely abridges one's expectancy. Superhuman tragedy. Life of a porter in the Khumbu.

A Porter's Life. Gaze

Eyes that tell a story I will never even fathom. All I can do is make eye contact and acknowledge that I see him. Offer a small snack out of my bag during his rest.

A Porter's Life: Nourishment Dal-Bhat Power.

Getting in those morning calories with hot soup and Dal Bhat warming the body for another arduous day of work carrying heavy loads.'

Dal Bhat is a traditional meal from popular in Nepal, Bangladesh and India. It consists of steamed rice and a cooked lentil soup called dal. Bhat or Chawal means "boiled rice." It's cheap and highly caloric. The locals eat it for almost every single meal.

The baskets you see are called dokos. They've been used for centuries. Dokos are hand-woven and made from dry bamboo strips. Bamboo is durable can also withstand the harsh weather in the Himalaya. A commonly used tool to carry the impossibly heavy loads. A namlo, or headstrap is also affixed across the forehead to take a little pressure off of the shoulders. Each porter will carry a T-shaped walking stick called a Tokma. When taking a rest, the Tokma fits perfectly on the bottom of the Doko allowing the porter to take a rest without completely sitting down and resting the weight of his or her load on the stick

A Porter's Life: Equilibrium

Eyes fixated on the ground. Slow and steady. 230 pounds of ramen noodles needs to be delivered by tomorrow. 15 hours more up the incredibly steep Himalayan slopes. Rapidly catalyzing what little oxygen the high-altitude air provides into precious energy to take that next step possible. Hands delicately placed on the face providing a center of balance. Equilibrium so the body doesn't torque side to side. Another day in the life of a poor porter.

A Porter's Life: Lift-Off.

With a barely audible but forceful grump they lean forward with all of their might. The heavy load slowly inches towards the sky as their backs fall parallel with the earth. Break's over. Time to push on.

Morning Delivery

All through the frigid and dark night he must carry his load. Temperature hovering around 0 at over 14,000 feet. His load is so burdensome that he must travel when nobody else is on the trail. No flashlight, no gloves, an off-shoot mountain "Hardware" down jacket and old tattered tennis shoes. He arrives at the construction sight of a new Teahouse in Dingboche at 6am. A short rest and he will head a few days back down the mountain to pick up the next load.

A Porter's Life. Out of the Way

Inching his way up the mountain, we try and courteously move to the side careful to not impede. A load that should be strapped to a mule or a yak yet is affixed to another poor porter.

A Porter's Life. Silent Pain

A look that says it all. A silent sort of pain. Screaming without a sound.

A Porter's Life: Lonesome

It's a lonesome and dusty trail carrying 240 pounds of ramen up the trail on the way to Namche.

A Porter's Life: Interval

Headphones in. Music playing shutting out the rest of the world and helping the intolerable load become slightly more tolerable. A few minutes forward. A few minutes rest. Before dawn to well after dusk. The strategy of short intense exercise periods followed by frequent rest periods allows them to work at a high-intensity level, spread out over many hours each day.

Coca-Cola

Nearly 220 pounds of Coca-Cola. When I asked him via translator what he thought of carrying Coca-Cola for tourists, he replied, "It's my job. If tourists want soda, I will deliver it. It pays for my family and hopefully education for my children so they don't have to live the life I am living."

Wicker and Windows

Nearly 220 pounds of Wicker chairs and metal window frames heading up to one of the new teahouses. More and more teahouses are being built in the region to meet the demand of more and more travelers in the region.

Grocery Store

A walking grocery story carrying a hodge-podge of goods to Namche.

Strain

Head down, strained neck.....forward ahead.

Beat The Crowds

A porter gets an early morning start around 6am before the trails get too crowded.

Agrarian

This woman from near Khumjung still makes her living farming the land. She sells excess harvest to the tea-houses and communities. Additionally, she poses for photos for a few rupees.

Eyes Up

A quick glance up as porters frequently have to meander through the maze of tourists, animals and other porters alike. The trail is the interstate system of sorts and is quite crowded in the lower sections of the Solu-Khumbu between Lukla and Namche Baazar. On this particular trip, I was told that over 900 tourists were starting a trek every single day from Lukla. This doesn't include their porters or Guides.

Infinite Generosity

A Porter carrying a clients bag. The client was having a difficult time on the steep slopes, so the porter kindly offered to help. If you've been to this region, you've see how humble and generous the spirit of the people are here. It's palpable.

Tea Break

A porter stops to drink hot tea on route. His load is impossibly large taking up half the trail and standing at over 9 feet tall.