Articles
Rainbow Valley
This rather idyllic-sounding valley is not what you think. It is not a place you would want to visit. It is located on Mt. Everest, and it is actually a graveyard of dead climbers. “Rainbow” comes from the assortment of colored jackets adorning the dozens of abandoned bodies frozen in the snow. “Rainbow Valley is one of the largest mass graves in the world because people die every single year trying to climb the world’s tallest mountain” (from ListMania video). Several more died on Everest just this past week.
There are many things in this world besides daredevil sports that lure people into death-defying activities. Thus Rainbow Valley is a metaphor for those who risk their lives for worldly goals that lack spiritual value.
How many go to their graves every day by engaging in destructive behaviors? Alcohol/drugs, gang warfare, family discord, gambling addiction … it is an endless list. And after death the mortician stylishly dresses the body, coifs their hair and daubs on some makeup – disguising the misery of their lives.
Maybe it would be more instructive to leave the bodies lying around like Rainbow Valley. But then again, countless climbers pass those bodies every year, give a brief shudder, and continue their ascent into the uknown. Why? “Because,” said George Mallory who died on Everest in 1924, “it’s there.”
