Junko Tabei
Junko Tabei
1939 — 2016
Japon, empire du Japon
Émotions disponibles (6)
Neutre
par défaut
Inspirée
Pensive
Surprise
Triste
Fière
Key Facts
Works & Achievements
A historic feat that made Junko Tabei the first woman to reach the roof of the world. This achievement paved the way for generations of female mountaineers around the world.
The first all-female mountaineering club in Japan, founded by Tabei to allow women to practice high-altitude mountaineering in a country where mixed-gender clubs gave them little room.
Junko Tabei became the first woman to climb the highest point on each of the seven continents, a feat requiring 17 years of expeditions and considerable logistical and financial organisation.
An autobiographical book in which Tabei recounts her expeditions, her emotions and her vision of women's mountaineering. Published in Japan, it inspired many young women to pursue mountain sports.
An environmental initiative founded by Tabei to combat pollution on Japanese mountain trails. She involved schools and associations, turning her public profile into a tool for ecological awareness.
A degree obtained at university to ground her environmental commitment in rigorous academic expertise, enabling her to formulate policy recommendations on the management of mountain areas.
Anecdotes
During the 1975 Everest expedition, Junko Tabei and her team were buried under an avalanche on April 6th, at an altitude of 6,300 metres. She remained unconscious for six minutes before being freed by the Sherpas. Despite her injuries, she refused to give up and resumed the ascent twelve days later.
When she joined a mountaineering club in her youth, the instructor told her that women were not made for climbing. Junko Tabei ignored this remark and founded the Ladies Climbing Club Japan in 1969, the first all-female mountaineering club in Japan, with the motto: 'Let's go on an overseas mountain expedition.'
On May 16, 1975, Junko Tabei became the first woman to reach the summit of Everest. Upon her return to Japan, she was welcomed as a national heroine, but she remained humble, stating that she had climbed for her own enjoyment and not to represent her country or her gender.
After retiring from competitive climbing, Junko Tabei dedicated herself to the protection of the mountain environment. She led clean-up operations on Mount Fuji and campaigned for mountaineers to respect the natural spaces they travel through, raising awareness about the waste left on the world's most frequented ascent routes.
In 1992, Junko Tabei became the first woman to climb the Seven Summits, the highest peaks on each of the seven continents. She achieved this feat while raising her children and working as a piano teacher, proving that an ordinary family life and extraordinary ambitions were not incompatible.
Primary Sources
I did not want to be the first woman to summit Everest. I simply wanted to climb Everest. Being a woman was a circumstance, not a goal.
On May 16, 1975, at 12:35 p.m. local time, Junko Tabei and sherpa Ang Tsering reached the summit of Mount Everest (8,848 m), making Tabei the first woman to achieve this feat in the history of world mountaineering.
Mountains do not discriminate. They pose the same challenges to everyone. It is human societies that draw boundaries between what women and men can achieve.
After the avalanche, my sherpas saved my life. Without them, there would have been no summit. Mountaineering is always a collective adventure, even when only one person reaches the highest point.
Key Places
The highest point on Earth at 8,848 metres, the site of Junko Tabei's historic triumph on 16 May 1975. She was the first woman to set foot on its summit, 22 years after Hillary and Norgay.
Junko Tabei's hometown, in northeastern Japan. She grew up there in a modest family and discovered her passion for mountaineering during a school trip to Mount Nasu at the age of ten.
The starting point for expeditions at an altitude of 5,364 metres, in the Khumbu Valley. It was here that the 1975 Japanese women's team organised itself before the fateful ascent interrupted by an avalanche.
Japan's sacred volcano and highest mountain (3,776 m). After her retirement, Junko Tabei organised numerous clean-up operations there, raising public awareness of the problem of litter left behind by hikers.
The capital of Nepal and a mandatory transit point for all Himalayan expeditions. It was here that Tabei obtained official permits, met her Sherpas, and made the logistical preparations for her ascents.
Typical Objects
An indispensable tool for mountaineers, used to progress on ice and snow and to arrest a fall. Junko Tabei used it on all her Himalayan ascents, notably during the ascent of Everest in 1975.
Vital equipment above 7,000 metres, where the air contains too little oxygen to breathe normally. Tabei and her team used oxygen bottles during the final ascent of Everest.
Metal spikes attached under boots to progress on ice and hard snow. Essential on the steep slopes of the Himalayas, they allow the mountaineer to secure each step.
An ultralight shelter resistant to snowstorms and violent winds at high-altitude camps. It was in such a tent that Tabei and her team were buried by the avalanche of 6 April 1975.
An essential navigation tool for planning ascent routes and locating camps. Tabei's expeditions used maps produced by British and Indian military survey teams.
A personal journal kept by Tabei throughout her expeditions, in which she recorded weather conditions, feelings, and observations. These notebooks served as the basis for her testimonial books published in Japan.
School Curriculum
Daily Life
Morning
On expeditions, Tabei would rise before dawn to take advantage of the stable morning weather conditions. She would put on her thermal undergarments, her down suit, and her crampons in freezing cold, then swallow a hot tea and a few biscuits before setting off toward the next camp.
Afternoon
Afternoons at high altitude were often spent waiting in the tent, when wind or blizzard made any progress impossible. Tabei would jot down observations in her notebook, check the equipment, and discuss strategy with the Sherpas and her teammates.
Evening
At camp in the evening, the team would prepare freeze-dried meals rehydrated with melted snow. Tabei would write in her journal, check the weather forecasts transmitted by radio from base camp, and go to sleep early to recover before the next day of climbing.
Food
At high altitude, the diet was dominated by freeze-dried and high-energy foods: dried rice, instant miso soup packets, chocolate, dried fruit, and biscuits. Hydration was crucial but difficult, as water had to be obtained by melting snow on a gas stove.
Clothing
Tabei wore the technical mountaineering gear of the 1970s: a goose-down suit, a wool balaclava, mirror-lens glacier goggles, lined leather gloves, and the iconic double-boot plastic mountaineering boots. Her equipment, though less advanced than today's, was at the cutting edge of the technology of the time.
Housing
During expeditions, Tabei lived in small high-altitude tents designed for two people, anchored in the snow with stakes and ropes. Back in Japan, she led a simple life in her suburban Tokyo home, teaching piano to neighborhood children to fund her next expeditions.
Historical Timeline
Period Vocabulary
Gallery
Junko Tabei
Mountaineers in Communism Peak in 1985
Junko Tabei (cropped)
Junko Tabei, Jaapani alpinist 85
Junko Tabei 85 (7)
Visual Style
Style visuel alliant photojournalisme alpin des années 1970 et esthétique japonaise épurée : contrastes forts entre combinaisons colorées et immensité blanche et grise de l'Himalaya.
AI Prompt
Japanese female mountaineer, 1970s Himalayan expedition aesthetic, high-contrast photography style inspired by black-and-white alpine photojournalism, bright primary-colored down jackets and wool balaclavas against white snow and grey granite, dramatic perspective looking up at an ice wall or snow-covered summit ridge, heroic and documentary feel, Ansel Adams meets Japanese woodblock print in its contrast and serenity, deep blue glacial sky, golden light at altitude, texture of weathered gear and frost-covered ropes, dignity and determination in the composition.
Sound Ambience
Ambiance sonore des grandes expéditions himalayennes : vent glacial, crampons sur neige dure, respiration sous masque à oxygène et silence vertigineux des altitudes extrêmes.
AI Prompt
High altitude Himalayan soundscape: howling wind through rocky ridges, crampons crunching on compacted snow and ice, the rhythmic thud of a piolet anchoring into a frozen slope, labored breathing through an oxygen mask, distant rumble of a snow avalanche echoing in the valley, the flapping of a nylon tent in gusts of arctic wind, the creak of ropes under tension, silence broken only by the heartbeat and the sound of boots in deep powder snow, far below the murmur of prayer flags on a Tibetan monastery.
Portrait Source
Wikimedia Commons — CC BY-SA 4.0 — Jaan Künnap — 1985
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Références
Ĺ’uvres
Première ascension féminine de l'Everest
16 mai 1975
Fondation du Ladies Climbing Club Japan
1969
Complétion des Sept Sommets
1992
Hohoemi no Himalaya (Sourire de l'Himalaya)
1992
Programme de nettoyage du mont Fuji
années 2000
Master en sciences de l'environnement
2000
