With both IMG and AT, I experienced some Sherpas that were absolutely exceptional, and others that were less helpful and less reliable.  For anyone considering hiring a personal Sherpa for their climb (which I would highly recommend doing), it would be a good idea to get a personal recommendation from someone that had direct experience with that Sherpa. 

In general though, I found that the AT Sherpas were more friendly and went out of their way to be helpful.  I am not sure why this would be, but perhaps it’s because AT don’t always use the same Sherpas year in year out, so they felt that there was more of a need to impress.  Of particular note was how they were always offering to carry gear, melt snow for water and even cook our food for us at the camps.

In 2006 we witnessed a lot of events that really concerned us, however one that really stands out was at the end of the expedition when we were due to leave.  Around 20 porters were milling around our camp waiting for work.  Our expedition bags and some group gear were all in a big pile and then they were grouped into smaller piles of 3 bags each.  Some of the porters came forward and were asked to carry the bags.  They lifted them up and then after a bit of testing for weight they put them down.  A heated discussion ensued between the porters and people from IMG (Nepalese staff working for IMG's agent in Nepal, Great Escapes), with the end result being that the porters put down their loads and walked out.

We were asked to leave at this point and told that it would all be sorted out.  I am not sure exactly what was going on, but the bags looked heavy to me (I know our ones were) and each person was being asked to carry 3 of them.