Mount Everest’s haunting ‘Rainbow Valley’ where frozen bodies lay
An area dubbed “Rainbow Valley” may sound like a happy place but when it comes to Mount Everest, it is far from joyous.
An area dubbed “Rainbow Valley” may sound like a happy place but when it comes to Mount Everest, it is far from it.
As The Sun reported this week, it is a place lined with colourful tents, jackets and the frozen remains of the victims who have tried to take on the famous climb.
The rainbow-coloured graveyard is also known as the “death zone” and is an area under the northern ridge of the world’s tallest peak.
Hundreds of people attempt to climb Mount Everest each year.
But thin oxygen levels, altitude sickness, harsh weather such as the extreme cold, avalanches, the risk of falling, and exhaustion, result in deaths.
During the 2023 climbing season, 18 climbers died while moving to and from the summit, making it the deadliest year on record. Among them was Australian climber Jason Bernard Kennison.
Everest once claimed nine lives in 11 days back in 2019. Brit climber Robin Haynes Fisher was just 150 metres from the summit when he became ill in the mountain’s notorious “death zone”, known for its low levels of oxygen.
Three climbers had died after waiting 12 hours to visit the summit due to overcrowding. All of them died of exhaustion on the way back down the mountain, bringing the death toll up to seven in just one week.
The freezing conditions have meant that the many bodies of the would-be explorers are forever entombed and preserved on the mountainside.
The cost of recovering the body is more than $100,000 and can often lead to further deaths.
It is not only bodies that are left behind, but colourful trash from those that do go on to successfully reach the summit and make it back to civilisation.
Social media has exposed the filthy condition tourists leave campsites on the world’s highest peak with shocking pictures and videos showing a mess of rubbish.
Tenzi Sherpa, an experienced guide on the world’s highest peak, made global headlines during the 2023 season after the fed-up climber shed light on the sorry state of the sacred mountain.
Tenzi Sherpa shared footage of Camp IV on Instagram, describing it as “the dirtiest camp I have ever seen.”
The clip showed a group of climbers passing through what appears to be an abandoned camp strewn with mountains of unwanted climbing material.
Tenzi Sherpa said the mess was an assortment of tents, empty oxygen bottles, steel bowls, spoons, sanitation pads and paper.
New measures were brought in this year aimed at reducing overcrowding and minimising environmental impact.
‘Green Boots’ and ‘Sleeping Beauty’
Some bodies left an Everest became famous.
Arguably the most famous was dubbed “Green Boots” by other climbers, after his distinctive footwear.
Surrounded by oxygen bottles, the huddled man’s frozen body lay for years where he died trying to shelter, in a rock crevice now known as “Green Boots’ Cave”.
Climbers actually had to step over the unfortunate adventurer’s legs on their way to and from the peak – and often stopped to rest and have a snack in the cave, alongside the body.
The corpse is widely believed to belong to Tsewang Paljor, from India, who died during a blizzard in 1996.
The body was recently moved, although the circumstances around what happened to it remain unclear, with some reports claiming the body was finally buried on the mountain by other climbers.
Another body known as “Sleeping Beauty” is that of American Francys Arsentiev, who died with her husband Sergei as they tried to scale the mountain together.
Ms Arsentiev made it to the top in 1998, becoming the first American woman to do so without oxygen, but ran into trouble on the way down.
The couple became stranded and separated overnight, and Mr Arsentiev suffered a fatal fall trying to rescue his wife, who had collapsed.
Climbers Ian Woodall and Cathy O’Dowd came across her and gave up their summit bid to stay with her before they were forced to descend for their own safety.
Mr Woodall eventually returned in 2007 to find the body, wrap it in an American flag and lower it from the mountain’s edge out of view – likely to the same resting place as her husband.
Climbers film what could have been their last moments
Two climbers who were taking on a different mountain in the Himalayas this month were lucky to be found alive after an 80-hour rescue mission.
Brit Fay Manners and American Michelle Dvorak were stranded on India’s Chaukhamba mountain at more than 20,000ft when their tent, climbing equipment and food plummeted into a ravine.
They were found alive after three days.
Ms Manners, a professional mountaineer, later shared a video on Instagram of footage she filmed of herself freezing on a ledge.
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”No sign of rescue, and we’re really f***ing cold,’ she said, adding they had no food or water.
Surprisingly, she told the BBC she had not been scared off and was already planning a rock climbing expedition in Morocco.
– with The Sun
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