RAINBOW VALLEY Also Death Zone

Its name is “Rainbow Valley”, approximately 8000 meters high in the Himalayas. But it’s “fame” lies in another juxtaposed title- “Death Zone” of the world’s highest peak Mount Everest. It is still having maximum dead bodies of the climbers who lost their lives and could not go forward or return. It also has landmarks like “Green Boots,” and “Sleeping Beauty” but these are names given to the corpses still left there for decades.

The name ‘Rainbow Valley’ has a rainbow in it because of the colourful jackets, boots and bags these bodies are covered with. High-altitude climbers come across these rainbow-colored dead bodies when they summit Everest in the region that is difficult to survive. More than 300 climbers have died in Mount Everest so far most of whom are in the death zone due to extreme weather, avalanches, and exhaustion from continuous climbing besides its topography. Breathing in an  air  that  has low oxygen while climbing in harsh weather can exhaust a climber and result in “summit fever.”

This often leads to climbers making mistakes when they cannot think rationally due to the environment of the death zone. “Summit fever” is a mountaineering term that describes the drive or compulsion of a climber to reach the summit no matter what the cost in that abnormal condition. According to Jeremy Windsor, a doctor who himself climbed Everest in 2007, the climbers of the death zone would be surviving on just one-quarter of the oxygen one would need at sea level.

At high altitudes the body will produce more hemoglobin than usual to compensate for the dramatic oxygen change. But at the same time, too much hemoglobin will actually thicken blood, making the heart work harder to pump around the body, which massively increases the chance of a stroke. Climbers are also at risk of hypoxia - when the brain doesn’t receive enough oxygen. Hypoxia causes brain swelling and makes it difficult to concentrate and is likely to trigger vomiting, sickness and in most cases death.

As per high-altitude expert and doctor Peter Hackett in such a condition humans will start to deteriorate. Sleeping becomes a problem. Muscle wasting and weight loss takes place. There are instances when a rigid climber shouts back at the Sherpa or companion who advise him not to proceed further. There are also scenes when a climber clings on to fellow mountaineers who leave him knowing his fate and other inescapability like bad weather. What remains is only an echo of their last voice. The white mountains, temperature and sky kissing height that look so beautiful in photos can start to haunt one if he or she gets lost, catches mountain sickness, or gets even minor injuries. Anyone who dies on Everest is preserved on Everest forever because of ice and snow, so the bodies keep piling up.

Among the landmark dead bodies most famous is that of Green Boots, an Indian climber named Tsewang Paljor who died over two decades ago. As if taking a nap, the climber lies on his side , legs stretching into the path, forcing passers-by to carefully step over his neon green climbing boots. Another famous dead body is that of Francys Arsentiev, the first woman from the United States to reach the summit of Mount Everest without the aid of bottled oxygen, in 1998.

She died of frostbite and her husband, also a famous climber, then died searching for her during descent. The frost bite had distorted her face with blotchy redness and had turned her skin hard and white. The fallen climber was later called as Sleeping Beauty. Prior to her in 1979, a German Climber Hannelore Schmatz became the first woman to die on Mt Everest. Her body remained preserved in the ice with eyes remained open and her hair flying in the air. Strong winds drifted her away, but her body still lies in the Rainbow Valley Everest. In 1999, the oldest known body was found on Everest was of George Mallory body was spotted 75 years after his death.

In contrast there are, however, other incidents when a climber was presumed to be dead but returns to the base camp after days though in a very bad state. One presumed dead climber’s wife even dreams of him coming to her bed in a mountain suit. She wakes up and cries while dreaming of his “ghost.” But she gets a lifetime surprise when he speaks to her on sat phones reaching the basecamp alive. Dead bodies are seldom removed because carrying a body all the way down is extremely risky and might also result in the death of the rescuers themselves.

Some rescuers, mostly Sherpas known to the mountains, have died during few retrieval operations. The body becomes heavier in cold conditions, and one must retrieve it by chiselling ice and snow in that hostile atmosphere. In some cases, because of the love for the mesmerising mountains the climbers wish to be left there if they die and normally their families and friends honour it as their last wish.