Dangerous work for small rewards

The BBC is retracing the footsteps of the 1953 British Everest expedition as they made their way up to base camp in preparation for the first successful assault on the mountain's summit. BBC correspondent Jane Hughes is keeping a diary of her journey.

Day 10: Lobuje to Gorak Shep

Nepalese porters tackle the dangerous terrain with heavy loads

A sobering reminder today of the brutal nature of the terrain we're walking through and the deadly dangers of altitude.

As we left Lobuje, crunching through the snow that fell overnight, a helicopter circled overhead and came into land.

It had been sent from Kathmandu to collect the body of a porter who died on the trail to base camp yesterday.

He had been carrying a computer up from Lukla down in the valley. He'd made it to Lobuje in just three days, a journey that took us over a week, including several rest-days for acclimatisation.

Harsh life

Even for a local man accustomed to this terrain and altitude he had rushed his journey, as he arrived he collapsed and within a matter of hours he had died from the symptoms of severe altitude sickness.

The helicopter carrying his body lifted off and made its way down the valley, watched by a friend of his and fellow porter who broke down in uncontrollable tears.

Everest has claimed many lives

The life of a porter in Nepal is harsh at the best of times.

The porter who died would have been paid $2 or $3 a day for his journey and was given a week in which to complete it. No one knows why he went so fast.

He may have wanted to get back down the mountain quickly in order to be available for more work. His wage was supporting a wife and three children.

Huge loads

Some porters take loads of up to 60 kilograms up the mountain but many of the porters in this area work at the limits of human endurance.

Porters can carry up to 60kg

Every day we pass wiry men and women carrying impossibly large loads up steep and rocky terrain and the uncomfortable truth is that expeditions like ours depend on these hardy people working for what seems to us like a pittance, but is in fact better money than they would get for other work in the area.

We and the other trekkers in Lobuje clubbed together to raise about £800 ($1,300) for his family. The trekking company which employed him is also expected to give them money.

The reality is, if he had been working for a local employer, his wife and children would have been left in far worse circumstances, but as we watch our porters toil ahead of us up the mountain that thought is little comfort.