Junko Tabei

Junko Tabei (田部井 淳子, born September 22, 1939 in Miharu – died October 20, 2016 in Kawagoe) was a Japanese mountaineer. She was the first woman to summit Everest on May 16, 1975. Junko was born in 1939 in Fukushima prefecture, one of seven children. Her passion for the mountains began after an excursion to the summit of Mount Nasu with her teacher when she was 10 years old.

This experience left a deep mark on the young girl. After completing her studies in English and American Literature at Showa Women's University (an establishment which offered a mountaineering club which she had joined during her studies), she formed a mountaineering club reserved for women, the Ladies Climbing Club: Japan (LCC), in 1969. With her husband, she tackles the highest peaks of Japan (Mount Fuji among others) to then focus on the Alps with in particular an ascent of the Matterhorn in Switzerland.

Junko quickly became famous and renowned in Japan for his qualities as a mountaineer, despite his relatively frail appearance and his small height, 1.52 m. In the early 1970s, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper and Nippon Television decided to organize an all-female expedition whose goal was to reach the summit of Everest. Fifteen women are selected from a hundred candidates.

Among them, Junko, who thus won the ticket for the Nepalese adventure. Intensive training is conducted beforehand. At the beginning of 1975, the expedition went to Kathmandu. Accompanied by nine Sherpa guides, the group of teammates took the same route as Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953. In early May, the climbers camped at an altitude of 6,300 meters.

On May 4, the adventure came close to disaster when an avalanche buried the entire camp. The Sherpa and the women manage to get out. Junko loses consciousness but is saved by the Nepalese guides. Even more determined than before, she takes the lead of the group. On May 16, 1975, twelve days after the avalanche, Junko reached the summit of Everest first.

In 1992, she was the first woman to complete the Seven Summits. She died on October 20, 2016 from cancer.