Nepalese Porters May Be World’s Most Efficient Haulers
`So legendary are the load-carrying abilities of the Nepalese that the word Sherpa, a term for one of the country’s ethnic groups, has become synonymous with “porter.”
A typical Nepalese porter carries a load nearly as heavy as he is. When he does, the porter burns less energy per pound than a backpacker would need to shoulder about half the same weight, Heglund and his colleagues found. [..]
Around the world, many people use their heads to bear burdens, said Rodger Kram, an expert on human and animal locomotion at the University of Colorado in Boulder. “It’s amazing how universal carrying loads on the head is—except in Western Europe and North America,” he said.
But their “enormous loads” set the Nepalese apart, Kram added. “It’s a good scientific puzzle, how they [conserve] energy when walking.”‘
