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‘iTe was the morning of May 16, 1975,
and 35-year-old Junko Tabel, a Japanese
housewife and mother, dug her spiked
boots into the ice and crawled across a
slick, narow ridge. Just four foot nine,
Junko was standing almost 30,000 feet
above sea level, and her destination was
only 40 feet away: the South Summit of Mt.
Everest, the tallest mountain in the world
On that freezing morning, Junko became
the first woman to ever reach it.
Junko was born in a small town in northern
Japan. She fell in love with climbing at
10 years old on a school field trip. She
and her classmates hiked up two tall
peaks, Mount Asahi and Mount Chausu.
She longed to climb more, but her family
was poor, and mountain climbing wasn't
something they could afford. It also wasn't
seen as an activity for girls, especially
small ones. When she went off to college,
she joined several climbing clubs, where
she was almost always the only woman.
After she graduated, she founded the
Ladies Climbing Club of Japan and began
to scale peaks with other female climbers.
In 1975 Junko and 14 other women
planned the first all-woman Everest
expedition, with Junko as leader.
The women and their sherpas
(Himalayan people who assist
climbers) completed a tong
and rigorous training process
before embarking on
their record-setting
journey. Junko’s husband and three-year-
‘old daughter cheered for her as she set
off to climb to the top of the world, but
many people were shocked that a mother
‘would leave her family behind to do
anything, let alone climb a mountain! “We
were told we should be raising children
instead,” Junko said.
But Junko was determined, and her
family's support was all she needed. The
women set off, well-prepared and excited,
but the journey was dangerous. One cold
morning on the mountain, Junko woke up
to a thunderous sound: an avalanche. Soon
a massive wave of snow, rocks, and ice had
buried Junko and several others. Junko was
unconscious for six full minutes. Her fellow
climbers pulled her out of the snow and
revived her with an oxygen mask. She was
bruised and battered, but she continued on.
When she finally reached the top, Junko
peered down thousands of feet into the
valleys of Tibet. She was exhausted and
relieved to have made it. She was also
very proud. Junko made history when she
reached the top of Everest, but she didn’t
stop there. In 1992 she became the first
woman to climb the “Seven Summits,” the
highest mountains on each of the seven
continents, including Mt. Kilimanjaro
in Africa and Mt. Aconcagua in South
America. Junko is in her 70s now, but
she still climbs at least three or four
mountains each year, and has no plans
test