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| Junko Tabei on Everest |
Junko Tabei on Everest
Junko Tabei First woman on Everest on 16th May 1975
Exactly 39 years ago, on May 16, 1975, Junko Tabei then 35-year-old with help of her Sherpa guide Ang Tshering reached the 8,848-meter peak. The peak called THE EVEREST the highest point on EARTH.On that day, the Fukushima Japan native made history in the world of mountaineering. She become the first woman to climb Mount Everest, the highest point of Earth.
Junko Tabei is a Japanese mountain-climber, born on September 22, 1939, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. The first woman, on May 16, 1975, to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
She graduate in English literature from Showa Women's University. She was also a member of mountain climbing club in her University. There Tabei in 1969 formed the "Ladies Climbing Club: Japan (LCC)". Before climbing Everest She climbed Mount Fuji, and the Matterhorn in the Swiss Alps, In 1972, Tabei was a established mountain climber in Japan.
The newspaper "Yomiuri Shimbun" and "Nihon Television" prepared an all-woman team and sent them to Nepal to take challenge of climbing Mount Everest. Including Tabei 15 women out of hundreds of applicants, were selected for the final expedition.
After a long training, they started the expedition early in 1975 from Katmandu (Nepal). There they found . They decided to take the same route Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay (in 1953) took with the help of nine local Sherpas. In early May the female team were camping at 6,300 meters where an avalanche struck their camp. Including Junko and the guides, they were buried under the snow. Tabei lost consciousness for almost 6 minutes until her Sherpa guide dug her outof snow. Twelve days after the avalanche, Tabei became the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
In 1992 Tabei also became the first female in the world to reach the highest point on each of the seven continents. These success records tells about her passion for mountaineering. She wants to scale the highest mountain in every country of the world. So far she has done for 60 countries.
She quoted as her biggest inspiration is the late Sir Edmund Hillary, who was, in 1953 along with Sherpa Tenzing, was the first to reach on the top of Everest.
Mother of two grown-up children, now a 75-year-old Tabei says mountaineering will be her passion forever.
