Inside Everest’s chilling ‘Rainbow Valley’ home to 200 bodies of doomed climbers who suffered same fate as Andrew Irvine
SITTING at an altitude of 26,000ft is a multi-coloured valley littered with the frozen remains of the victims of Mount Everest.
Dubbed the “Rainbow Valley”, the area under the northern ridge of the world’s tallest peak is lined with the colourful jackets of trekkers who have died attempting to summit the mountain.
Other than the chilling bodies, there is a colourful array of tents, cans, and oxygen tanks dumped in the area.
The rainbow-coloured graveyard – also known as the “death zone” – is a grim reminder to eager mountain climbers striving to reach the peak.
While some climbers achieve the remarkable feat, others give up and return.
And sadly others perish on the mountainside, many of them never to be seen again.
More than 5,000 have scaled it since it was first climbed by New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay in 1953.
Recently, the foot thought to belong to a British mountaineer who vanished on Mount Everest 100 years ago has been found by documentary makers.
Andrew Comyn “Sandy” Irvine was last seen with George Mallory 800ft from the peak.
Mallory’s body was found in 1999.
The foot, in a boot and a sock embroidered “AC Irvine” was discovered lower down in melting ice on a glacier below the North Face.
National Geographic Explorer Jimmy Chin, who was a member of the climb team, said: “Sometimes in life, the greatest discoveries occur when you aren’t even looking.
“This was a monumental and emotional moment for us and our entire team on the ground, and we just hope this can finally bring peace of mind to his relatives and the climbing world at large.”
While the brave mountaineer wasn’t found in the stretch dubbed Rainbow Valley, hundreds of other bodies lie there – some still undiscovered beneath the snows.
The freezing conditions have meant that themany bodies of the would-be explorers are forever entombed and preserved on the mountainside.
The cost of recovering the body is more than £53,500 and can often lead to further deaths.
According to some estimates, more than 327 people have died on the mountain between 1922 and 1923.
The brutal conditions make the trek near impossible, as thin oxygen levels, harsh weather and strong gusts of wind compound the cramped and narrow trail.
The high altitude is also a problem for even the most experienced climbers, with many taking extra oxygen tanks to combat altitude sickness.
Besides altitude illnesses, other factors, such as extreme cold, avalanches, falling, and exhaustion, also result in deaths in Rainbow Valley.
Everest once claimed nine lives in 11 days, including Brit climber Robin Haynes Fisher.
Fisher was just 150m from the summit when he became ill in the mountain’s notorious “death zone”, known for its low levels of oxygen.
And three climbers 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.
‘Green Boots’
Arguably the most famous of the bodies on Everest 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.
Who is Andrew Irvine?
By Vera Demertzis, Foreign News Reporter
THE REMAINS of British mountaineer Andrew ‘Sandy’ Irvine were recently found on Mt Everest, 100 years after he attempted to climb Mt Everest alongside Geroge Mallory.
Born in Birkenhead, Cheshire, Andrew was one of six children of historian Willam Fergusson Irvine and Lilian Davies-Colley.
At the age of 22, he and George Mallory attempted to climb Mount Everest.
During the expedition, he made major and crucial innovations to the expedition’s professionally designed oxygen sets, radically improving their functionality, lightness, and strength.
Mallory and Irvine began their ascent on 6 June, and by the end of the next day, the pair had established a final two-man camp at 26,800ft.
It is not known what happened, however the duo perished and laid undiscovered for several decades.
Mallory’s body was discovered in 1999. The remains of Irvine were recently discovered in 2024 by a documentary crew.
Irvine’s great-niece Julie Summers, said she’d been “moved to tears” on being told of the discovery.
“I have lived with this story since I was a seven-year-old when my father told us about the mystery of Uncle Sandy on Everest,” she said.
“The story became more real when climbers found the body of George Mallory in 1999, and I wondered if Sandy’s body would be discovered next.
“A quarter-of-a-century after that discovery, it seemed extremely unlikely that anything new would be found.
“When Jimmy told me that he saw the name AC Irvine on the label on the sock inside the boot, I found myself moved to tears. It was and will remain an extraordinary and poignant moment.”
Relatives have agreed to DNA tests.
‘Sleeping Beauty’
The 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.
Francys 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 Sergei 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.
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.
David Sharp
David Sharp, 34, From Teesside, was one of those to stop and rest in Green Boots’ Cave – but tragically died there.
He was found huddled in the cave on the brink of death in 2006, with reports claiming more than 40 others passed him on their way to the summit without helping.
The Brit climber had been attempting to climb the mountain alone – with no guide, no radio and just two bottles of oxygen, rather than the standard five, according to reports.
He is believed to have achieved his goal but ran into trouble on the way down.
His body was eventually removed from the trail at the request of his parents.
George Mallory
The body of Brit climber George Mallory was only discovered in 1999 – 75 years after he disappeared on the mountain.
Mallory was part of an ill-fated 1924 expedition to become the first team to reach the summit.
The intrepid explorer once declared Everest to be a symbol of “man’s desire to conquer the Universe” – telling reporters he wanted to climb it “because it’s there”.
But he and climbing partner Andrew “Sandy” Irvine disappeared, with an ice axe found in the snow the only trace of them for the best part of a century.
Mallory’s body was found preserved in the snow by the American mountaineer Conrad Anker in 1999.
Irvine’s body was never found.
It remains a mystery whether they made it to the summit, which would have made them the first people to successfully climb the mountain – some 30 years before Norgay and Hillary.
Despite the risks, brave trekkers continue to put one foot in front of the other knowing their last step could be potentially fatal.