Junko Tabei   is a Japanese mountain-climber,

who became the first female to reach the summit of

Mount Everest on May 16th, 1975.



                            Tabei  was born May, 23th 

             at Fukushima Perfecture in 1939. 

             She says she was attracted to mountain climbing

             by the experience of climbing Mt. Nasu

             with a teacher when she was 10 years old.



                  She went to Showa Women's University 

and is married with 2 children.  

She began climbing around 1962 after graduating

from Showa Women's University where she studied

English literature and joined the mountain climbing club. 



            She formed a women's mountain climbing club;

"Ladies Climbing Club: Japan(LCC)"  in 1969.

She also enjoyed mountain climbing with her husband,

they climbed Mt. Fuji

and some of the highest mountains in Japan.

She also climbed the Matterhorn in the Swiss Alps.

           After a long hard training, early in 1975, 

                     they traveled to Katmandu, 

 where they found nine local Sherpa people to guide them.

  They used  the South-East Ridge route  the same route 

   Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay took in 1953.



               By early May,

the women camped at a height of 6,300 meters,

and there they were resting

when an avalanche struck their camp.

The women, including  Junko and the guides,

were buried under the snow.

Tabei lost consciousness for about six minutes

until her Sherpa guide dug her out.

Twelve days after the avalanche,

Tabei became the first female to reach the summit of

Mount Everest peak on May 16th, 1975.




                                     Since then,

         she has climbed many mountains all over the world, 

        and is the first woman to have achieved the summits 

               of the highest peaks on all seven continents.

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