Junko Tabei reached the 29,032-foot summit of Everest as part of an all-female Japanese expedition, becoming the first woman to stand atop the world's highest mountain. Twelve days earlier, an avalanche had buried her and her teammates at Camp II; she was dug out unconscious but pressed on. Tabei went on to become the first woman to climb the Seven Summits, the highest peak on every continent.
Tabei had faced skepticism and outright hostility simply organizing the expedition. Japanese sponsors reportedly told her that women should be raising children rather than climbing mountains, and she funded much of the trip by giving piano lessons and working odd jobs, eventually assembling a team of fifteen women for the Japanese Women's Everest Expedition.
The climb nearly ended in disaster before it began. On May 4, an avalanche struck their camp at 20,000 feet, burying Tabei and four other climbers under snow. Her Sherpa guides dug her out unconscious; she recovered enough within two days to continue. Twelve days later, on May 16, 1975, she reached the summit, twelve days after Chinese climbers had reached it from the north side, becoming the first woman ever to stand on top of Everest via any route.
Tabei later remarked she never intended to be a symbol of feminism, only to climb the mountain she loved. She went on to complete the Seven Summits by 1992, the first woman to do so, and spent her later career campaigning for environmental protection of mountain ecosystems, appalled by the litter she found accumulating on Everest's slopes.
Key people: Junko Tabei