The Japanese Women's Everest Expedition

Junko Tabei · 1975 CE · Earth

Put a woman on the summit of Everest by the South Col, with a team of fifteen Japanese women and six Sherpas.

Historical context

Twenty-two years after Hillary and Tenzing, thirty-eight men had stood on Everest and no woman had; the Japanese Alpine Club did not admit women to its Himalayan expeditions at all. Tabei's team of fifteen raised its own money, sewed its own gear and marched in with six Sherpas in the spring of 1975. A Chinese expedition was on the north side the same season, and Phantog, a Tibetan climber with it, reached the summit eleven days after Tabei; the two women never met on the mountain.

The voyage, step by step

1. Fifteen women in Kathmandu

   March 1975

   In March 1975 the Japanese Women's Everest Expedition assembles in Kathmandu: fifteen climbers, six Sherpas, a doctor and a permit for the South Col that took four years to obtain.

2. Namche Bazaar

   1975 CE

   The march-in follows the Dudh Kosi up to the Sherpa capital, where the six Sherpas of the expedition are from and where the porters are paid off.

3. Base camp

   April 1975

   Base camp is established at 5,364 metres below the Khumbu icefall in early April, and the Sherpas and climbers begin fixing ladders through the ice.

4. The avalanche at Camp II

   4 May 1975

   At half past midnight on 4 May an avalanche from the Nuptse side sweeps Camp II at 6,300 metres and buries Tabei and four companions in their tents; the Sherpas dig her out unconscious after six minutes.

5. The South Col

   15 May 1975

   Twelve days after the avalanche Tabei and Ang Tshering reach the South Col at 7,900 metres and spend the night of 15 May there with oxygen sets ready for the morning.

6. The first woman on Everest

   16 May 1975

   At 12:30 on 16 May 1975 Junko Tabei and Ang Tshering reach the summit of Everest; she is the first woman to stand on the highest point on Earth, twenty-two years after Hillary and Tenzing.

Outcome

Junko Tabei on the summit at 12:30 on 16 May 1975 with Ang Tshering, twelve days after an avalanche buried her at Camp II; the first woman on the highest point on Earth.

Junko Tabei

A schoolteacher's daughter from Fukushima who founded a women's climbing club, was buried by an avalanche at 6,300 metres and twelve days later, on 16 May 1975, became the first woman on the summit of Everest.

Read on Wikipedia

Sources

• Junko Tabei — Wikipedia
• Honouring High Places: The Mountain Life of Junko TabeiJunko Tabei and Helen Y. Rolfe · Rocky Mountain Books · 2017

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