The First Woman to Climb Everest

One would not have guessed that the 'weak little girl', born just four feet six inches tall in a printer's home in a small village in northern Japan, would one day go against the cultural traditions of women in Japan She will be the first woman to climb the highest mountain.

On May 16, 1975, Tabuki became the first woman in the world to reach the summit of Everest. He was 35 at the time.

Amiko Hiraki was 18 years old when he climbed Everest, but he still remembers the celebrations in Japan and the joy of the people there. It was a big celebration. I bought a very expensive photo magazine to celebrate Jinko's success.

I was very impressed with them and very-2 happy Especially when I found out that she had taken the women's team to the top of the global. This was far beyond my imagination because at that time women's work in Japan country was limited to raising children at home. Like every woman who faced the same challenges all times.

Jinko and Yamiko met in 1975, many years after their summit. Yamiko Hiraki helped Jinko Tabei write a book on his life (Honoring High Places: The Mountain Life of Junko Tabei).

Recalling her, MQ says, "If you had met Jinko, you would have known that she was a very ordinary, present-minded, sociable woman with a sense of humor, but there was something about her that made her stand out from the crowd." Makes it stand out and extraordinary. '

Yamiko was so impressed with Jenko's success that she kept the magazine with her for many years. we kept that magazine book with me for decades, and when we met Jinko, we asked him to give me his autograph.

Jinko Tabai was born in 1939 in the Miharo region of northern Japan. Most of the farmers lived in this village. She was the fifth of seven siblings and was considered a 'weak little girl' since childhood, but at the age of nine something happened that changed her life.

One of his teachers took the whole group on a tour of the nearby mountains, and from here the 'love affair' with the mountains began, which ended with his life.

Jenko later described the moment in his book as follows: 'Those mountains made me their captive The effects on my body and my skin have never been better. It was in those moments that I realized that there was so much in this world that I needed to discover. The joy I felt when I reached the top of the mountain that day, I had never felt before.

But Jinko's campaign began when he enrolled at the University of Tokyo.

The girl from the village became stressed while living in a city like Tokyo, so her friends took her on a 'hike' and the mountains once again reached the top when she was nine years old. He revived the joy in the hearts of the people.

Jenko wrote in his book: 'It doesn't matter how slow your climb is. You take one step at a time and eventually reach the top, Everytime Climbing the any mountain area also made me very best realize that no matter what the any difficulties are face, there is no alternative other player will real play in your place. All time, You have to climb to the top yourself in life.

She writes that I learned these lessons at the age of nine and then practiced them all my life.

After completing her university studies, Jenny went to learn adventure in the winter. When she went to head to Tanigawa Deck near Tokyo in 1965, she met Masanobu Tabai, a well-known Japanese mountaineer. Despite her mother's objections (Masanobo was not educated at the college), Jenki Tabai married Masanobo at the age of 27.

At that time, women were not allowed to enter mountaineering clubs in Japan, so in 1967, Jenko founded the Women's Climbing Club (Joshi Tohan Club).

The following year, she became the first woman in Nepal to reach the 7,555-meter Annapurna III peak, and in 1971, she and a team of all-women were "permitted" to climb Mount Everest, the world's highest mountain. (License) applied.

Recalling that time, Jenko's partner in the Everest expedition, Setsuko Katamura, told the : "We were lucky. People used to tell us that it was impossible and very dangerous for women. You women's should stay at home. '

Setsuko Katamura also had a passion for mountaineering. She was only 24 years old when she asked Jenko if she could join the campaign. And whose answer was 'why not.'

In Japan, it was not considered appropriate for women to dream of climbing, so despite Jenko's yes, Setsuko kept this secret in her heart for a long time.

 Setsuko said, Japanese people's was very conservative and young girls had to obey their parents. So for a long time I kept it a secret and didn't tell anyone that I was involved in the Everest expedition.

In the spring of 1975, four years after applying for a permit, the women's team was finally allowed to climb Everest.

It was a group of 15 women. Although they have some sponsors, they often hear, "Instead of all this, you should sit at home and raise children."

But they did not give up, even some adventure items that Tabai had to make with his own hands, including making waterproof tales from car covers and trousers from curtains.

"Her baby was very young, but she took care of it and took piano classes," says her friend Setsuko. Her husband, who was himself a great climber, helped her a lot and together they worked hard to raise money for her Everest expedition.

And finally, in May 1975, these 15 women embarked on a journey of history with the help of six Sherpas.

The women's team chose the same path that led New Zealand mountaineer Edmund Hillary and his Nepali guide and mountaineer Tenzing Norgay to climb the world's highest peak, Everest, for the first time in May 1953.

But on May 4, the same accident happened to this team, which is the worst nightmare of Everest climbers. Avalanche.

When the team was at an altitude of 6300 meters (20700 feet), avalanches hit their camp.

Regarding this moment, Jenko wrote in his book: 'I couldn't breathe, it felt like something very heavy had fallen on me. I didn't understand anything Sometimes I was hitting the head and sometimes the face. The pieces of the tent were flying in the air in the form of rags. so we felt like and I was dead for a moment' that time.

Jinko and four other women climbers were barely pulled out of the snow. She said,She was so injured and could not walk that time. Which took two days to recover.

Some members of his team wanted to return to base camp, but Jenko refused.

Recalling the time after this horrific accident, Setsuko says, "Jenko insisted that we not return to base camp and continue to climb the peak because the time was too short." Appropriate time. he said, If we are go down and will lose the chance to climb Mount Everest.

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She tells Setsu that usually Nepali Sherpas are very scared of toads but since their determination was so strong, Sherpas decided not to leave with us but they had to change their plan.

Now, instead of the two women who climbed Everest, they decided to send only one team up, and that team consisted of Tabai and his guide and Sherpa Ang Tunnel.

According to Setsuko, all the women supported him at that time. The day they started to climb for the final push or peak, the weather was very clear, but as they and their companions approached the Sherpa Summit, they saw that there was a thin, extremely dangerous slope of snow. Which no one has ever mentioned during previous campaigns. Jinko and Ang tunnel crawled across it.

He later described it as the most disturbing experience of his life.

'Clouds were passing under me. Just like I'm watching them from the plane. It was a pleasant feeling to be in a place where there is no higher place in the world but there was no room for error. From here you fall straight into the abyss of death. I was probably going to go crazy because of the stress, but we kept going.

And finally, on May 16, 1975, she became the first woman to climb the world's highest peak, Everest.

The moment I tried to take a picture of the tunnel with the flags of both countries (Japan and Nepal), I realized for the first time that I was standing in a place where There is no higher place in the whole world and that feeling was very pleasant.

Setsuko was at base camp when he heard the news on a walkie-talkie. I will never forget that moment's. He also saw them coming down Everest. Setsuko says she has never seen Jinko so tired before.

Jenko crossed the geyser very slowly and was so tired that she stopped near the base camp. On the other hand, we were all very excited, but seeing them brought tears to my eyes.

As the team embarked on their return journey to Kathmandu, people from nearby villages flocked to see the woman who had climbed Everest for the first time in history, carrying fruits and flowers in her hands, according to Setsuko. Arriving in Japan, he received a warm welcome.

Yimiko Hiraki, who translated Jinko's book, says Jinko was such a humble woman that many years later she realized the greatness of what she had accomplished and how it affected Japanese society and young Japanese women. What is it.

"I still remember that after Geno climbed Mount Everest, no one dared to tell us to keep quiet," says Setsuko. We could do whatever we women wanted and no one could stop us.

Jenko Tabai was not only the first woman to climb Mount Everest, but she also set a record, and in 1992, Jenko Tabei became the first woman to ascend the Seven Summits (the highest of the seven continents, numbering nine). Became the first woman.

Not only was she fond of climbing mountains, but she was also part of the campaign to clean up the mountains.

Jinko's love affair with the mountains continued until a few months before her death, and she died in 2016 while battling cancer.(Manza Anwar)