Junko Tabei

Junko Tabei (田部井 淳子, born 1939) is a Japanese mountain-climber, who became the first female on the peak of Mount Everest on May 16, 1975.Junko was born in Fukushima Prefecture in 1939. She caught her mountain climbing bug when she climbed Mt. Nasu with a teacher when she was ten years old. This experience changed her life forever. After she graduated from Showa Women's University, where she learned 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 other highest mountains in Japan. She also climbed the Matterhorn in the Swiss Alps.

By 1972, Junko was known as one of the best mountain climbers in Japan. Yomiuri Newspaper and Nihon Television decided to send an all-woman team to Nepal in order to challenge the unforgiving Mt. Everest. Fifteen women including Junko out of hundreds were selected for the expedition.

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 same route 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. Junko lost consciousness for about six minutes until her Sherpa guide dug her out.

In 1992, Junko was the first woman to complete the Seven Summits.