" I
can't understand why men make all this fuss about Everest…It's only a
mountain," Junko Tabei is believed to have said after climbing right to
the top of the Mount Everest.
 |
Junko Tabei |
But
there was some serious fuss to be made about Tabei's Everest ascent. Only 36
people had stood on Mount Everest's summit before Tabei: all of them men. On 16
May 19975, defying stereotypes and battling prejudices, Tabei created history
by becoming the first woman to stand on the peak of the world's highest
mountain.
Born on
23 May 1939 in a small town in North Japan, Tabei was one of seven children. A
very frail child, she suffered from weak lungs and was never very athletic. In
fact, often being teased for being too "sickly", Tabei shunned
sports.
When she
was 10 years old, Tabei tagged along with a teacher on a school climbing trip
to Mount Asahi (6,233 feet/1900 m) and Mount Chausu (6,365 feeet/ 1940 m) in
Nasu. This outing was to change Tabei's life forever– she fell in love with
climbing. It was a non-competitive sporting pursuit that suited her
temperament. She could climb at her own pace, reaching the top even if she was
slow, could quit, turn around and return another day and the mountain peak
would still be hers to claim.
Since,
at that time, mountaineering was not considered to be an appropriate occupation
for women in Japan, Tabei went on to graduate with a degree in English
literature from the Showa Women's University. Tabei became very serious about
mountain climbing soon after graduation and took it up professionally. At the
age of 30, she formed the Ladies Climbing Club (LCC) of Japan in 1969.
Only 4
feet and 9 inches tall, the diminutive Tabei had soon scaled most of the
Japanese peaks, including Mount Fuji, and was looking for bigger mountains to
climb. On 19 May 1970 she, along with members of her club, scaled Annapurna III
and now they set their sights on Mount Everest.
The club
applied to the Nepalese government for a permit in 1971, but the climbing
schedule was full for the next four years. This was when Japan's Nihon
Television and the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper came to her rescue. 1975 was
declared the International Women's Year
by the United Nations, and to mark the occasion, the two organizations decided
to sponsor an all-women expedition to Mount Everest. Tabei was one of the
fifteen women chosen from hundreds of candidates.
After an
intense training period, Tabei left her two-and-half-year-old daughter at home
and headed to Kathmandu with the rest of the team. Making good progress, the
all-women expedition, along with their Sherpa guides were spending time getting
acclimatized at 20,669 feet (6,300m) when they were hit by terrible avalanche
on 4 May. All climbers, their tents, climbing equipment and the Sherpas were
buried under a thick blanket of snow. The Sherpa guides did a remarkable job of
rescuing everyone. Tabei was pulled out from under the snow by the legs by her
Sherpa Ang Tshering, who later accompanied her to the summit.
Tabei
was covered in welts and bruises and her legs and back hurt. However, despite
this, after making sure that everyone was alive and alright, Tabei, as deputy
expedition leader, decided to continue further up the icy slopes of Everest.
From here on, the climb was a challenge for a battered Tabei. But determined to
get to the very top, Tabei soldiered on, often crawling on her hands and knees.
Twelve
days later, 35-year-old Tabei's perseverance was justly rewarded, when she
became the first woman to successfully summit Mount Everest. Had she and her
team been delayed by the avalanche the record could easily have slipped through
Tabei's fingers. For, just 11 days later, 37-year-old Phantog, a Tibetan member
of the Second Chinese team to ascend Mount Everest, became the second woman to
summit the mountain.
 |
Tabei with another Everest legend, Reinhold Messner during 60th anniversary of the first successful ascent of Everest in Kathmandu, 2013 |
Fighting
for the social equality of women in Japan, Tabei is believed to have said that
climbing Everest was easier than overcoming discrimination in Japan. At that
time, women were discouraged from indulging in non-family related pursuits.
However, since Tabei's remarkable achievement, there have been several Japanese
women climbers who have gone on to scale Everest, among other mountains. The
list included Tamae Watanabe, who holds the record for being the oldest woman
to have climbed Everest, not once but twice.
After
conquering Everest, Tabei went on to become the first woman to complete the Seven Summits when she scaled the 16,023
foot-high (4883 m) Carstensz Pyramid in 1992.
Tabei
returns to the mountains time and again, because they teach her " a lot of
things", making her realize, "how trival my personal problems
are". Tabei likes to describe herself as "a free spirit of the mountains".
Now over
70, Tabei shows no signs of slowing down. Her dream is to climb the highest mountain
in every country. With over 60 of them already scaled, she has just over
two-thirds of the way still to go. And when she is not climbing mountains,
Tabei spends time as the director of the Himalayan Adventure Trust of Japan, an
organization dedicated to preserving mountain environments.
This story
is included in Incredible Ascents To
Everest published by Roli Books
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