I'm cringing just by reading online about cases where porters have been baldy mistreated by western trekking companies - how some porters receive minimum, or no proper trekking equipment to help them climb mountains, or sufficient warm clothing and/or sleeping bags, and even being overloaded by too heavy a load (I'm probably guilty of this, because according to Saf, my bag was notorious for being heavy =/), and also how they're being underpaid and having to skim on their very skinny salary to pay for their own accommodation and food during their trek up with tourists instead of being paid for by the trekking company.