10 questions · Society & Everyday
Junko Tabei is born in Japan in 1939 and is considered a weak, sickly child. But on a school hike up a mountain she discovers her great love: mountaineering. At a time when the sport is seen in Japan as a purely male domain, she refuses to be deterred. She founds a mountaineering club for women only, whose motto is, roughly: let us mount an overseas expedition by our own strength. In 1975 Junko Tabei makes history: she becomes the first woman in the world to reach the summit of Mount Everest, at 8,849 metres the highest mountain on Earth. The ascent is a battle against all odds: shortly before the summit her camp is buried by an avalanche, and she herself is briefly buried and has to be dug out. But she continues the climb and finally stands at the very top. Tabei is not content with that. She sets herself an even greater goal: the "Seven Summits", the highest mountains of all seven continents. In 1992 she becomes the first woman to complete them: a world-class mountaineer. Well into old age Junko Tabei stays true to the mountains and becomes an advocate for nature: she campaigns for the protection of increasingly litter-strewn mountain regions and even studies the environmental damage on Everest. Even after being diagnosed with cancer, she does not stop climbing. Junko Tabei dies in 2016: a pioneer who proved that women can stand on the roof of the world.
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first woman on Mount Everest
Everest, at around 8,849 metres, is the highest mountain on Earth.
💡 Did you know? In 1975 Tabei stood as the first woman on the summit of Mount Everest: the highest mountain on Earth.
mountaineer
She discovered mountaineering on a school hike.
💡 Did you know? Despite her slight build and the doubts of many men, Tabei became one of the most important mountaineers in history.
Japan
In Japan, mountaineering was then seen as a purely male domain.
💡 Did you know? In Japan mountaineering was long seen as men's business: Tabei proved otherwise and became a national heroine.
an avalanche (buried)
Twelve days before the summit, at Camp II at about 6,300 metres, Tabei was buried by an avalanche and pulled out unconscious: yet she climbed on.
💡 Did you know? She nonetheless continued the climb and reached the summit.
first woman to complete the Seven Summits
The "Seven Summits" are the highest mountains of all seven continents.
💡 Did you know? In 1992 Tabei became the first woman to climb the „Seven Summits“: the highest mountains of all seven continents.
a women's mountaineering club
Its motto: to mount an overseas expedition by their own strength.
💡 Did you know? Tabei founded Japan's first women's climbing club under the motto that women could master expeditions entirely without men.
environmental protection in the mountains
In later years Tabei championed the protection of the mountains and fought the rubbish left by expeditions on Everest.
💡 Did you know? She even studied the environmental damage on Everest and kept climbing after a cancer diagnosis.
Foto: Jaan Künnap · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Junko Tabei
Junko Tabei (1939 to 2016) was a Japanese mountaineer and the first woman to climb Mount Everest and the Seven Summits.
💡 Did you know? Over her life Tabei climbed the highest peaks of more than 70 countries and kept climbing to the end despite cancer.
1939
Born: 22 September 1939 in Japan
2016
Died: 20 October 2016, aged 77
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