On 10 April, 1986, I was leading a trekker´s party in central Nepal from Manang over the Thorang La (5330 metres) and down lo Muktinath. We had just crossed the pass when a little to the side of the trail we noticed a black and blue sleeping bag spread out on the snow. A closer look showed that the lightweight sleeping bag was but a death shroud for a young porter. Scattered around were the contents of his doko: onions, potatoes, trekking food and utensils, It seemed that he had fallen victim to frostbite and altitude sickness and died a lonely death, far from the lowland hills where he obviously belonged.
My investigations showed that the dead man was from the village of Khanchok, on the Pokhara-Dumre road. He had been hired by a trekking party of an American couple, led by a sardur from a prominent trekking agency in Kathmandu.As a mountain guide, I am concerned with the poor treaimem often meted out lo hill porters by some parties. While most tourists and trek organisers are quite decent, a few take advantage of the extreme poverty of our mountain peasants to take them to the limits of their endurance and capacity with little or no equipment, poor diet, and no support when they need help.
To retain and develop further the trekking trade, which forms an increasingly important part of our national economy, we must regulate and monitor it so that our image is not tarnished, neither in the eyes of foreigners nor in those of our rural compatriots.
I remember a 1984 article in the Rising Nepal in which a Bavarian climber
was quoted saying that in his trip, "We didn´t suffer any losses, just one porter was killed." The titie of that article was, "No Losses: Just the Death of a Porter". It seems as if nothing has changed.