Who is junko tabei and why celebrate Google? She is first woman to reach summit of Everest

Who is junko tabei and why celebrate Google? She is first woman to reach summit of Everest

Who is junko tabei and why celebrate Google? 

Junko Tabei: Google celebrates first female to reach summit of Mount Everest

Junko Tabei was raised in Miharu, a small town in Japan's Fukushima Prefecture. Her love from climbing began when, at age 10, she went on a class trip to Mount Nasu

Junko Tabei survived an avalanche and defied stereotypes to become the first woman to scale Mount Everest.

The pioneering Japanese mountaineer, who has been celebrated in a Google Doodle on what would have been her 80th birthday, once said she rather be remembered as the 36th person to climb the world’s highest peak.

“I did not intend to be the first woman on Everest,” she explained four decades after the feat.

But Tabei, a 4ft 9ins mother-of-two from a small town in Fukushima prefecture, undoubtedly changed the landscape of Japanese mountaineering. She founded the Ladies Climbing Club – the first for women in Japan – in 1969 with the slogan: “Let’s go on an overseas expedition by ourselves.”

“Most Japanese men of my generation would expect the woman to stay at home and clean the house,” she later said in an interview.

Junko Tabei became the first woman to climb the Mount Everest in 1975

Google today honoured Japanese mountaineer 

Born in 1939, Junko Tabei was raised in Miharu, a small town in Japan's Fukushima Prefecture. Her love from climbing began when, at age 10, she went on a class trip to Mount Nasu. As a mother of two in 1969, she founded Japan's first Ladies Climbing Club which was to defy the notion that women are supposed to stay indoors.

In 1975, Junko Tabei became the first woman to climb the Mount Everest. She, however, preferred to be remembered as the 36th person to climb the world's highest peak. "I did not intend to be the first woman on Everest," she once said

She reached the summit of Everest on 16 May 1975, as the leader of an all-female Japanese climbing party. They were frequently told they should be “raising children instead” as the sought sponsorship for the expedition.

The team had set out with 15 mountaineers and six sherpas, but at 9,000ft its camp was buried by an avalanche. Undeterred, after three days recovery she ploughed on – alone except for her guide – and reached the summit 12 days later.

After successfully ascending the summit, she was honoured by Japan's Emperor, Crown Prince and Princess. Junko Tabei love mountain climbing much more than the media attention she received. She After Everest, she went on to climb the highest peak on each continent -- Aconcagua, Denali, Kilimanjaro, Vinson, Elbrus, and Puncak Jaya. She eventually reached mountaintops in 76 different countries.

Google, with its doodle, shows a graph along with seven ice-capped mountains, depicting the "seven summits". An animated Junko Tabei is seen hopping across the mountains in the doodle.

In 1992, she became the first woman to complete the “seven summits” – the highest peaks of all the continents.

In later life she became concerned about the degradation of the world’s highest mountain, saying in 2003: “Everest has become too crowded. It needs a rest now.”

In 2012, Junko Tabei was diagnosed with peritoneal cancer. Despite her illness, she kept her passion to scale new heights alive. She died in a hospital in Kawagoe on 20 October 2016.