Japan, October 23rd, 2016: The first woman to conquer Mount Everest, Junko Tabei of Japan, died aged 77, media reported Saturday.<\/p>\n
Tabei died of peritoneal cancer on Thursday at a hospital in Saitama, north of Tokyo, Japan’s public broadcaster NHK and Kyodo News said, quoting her family.
\nShe completed the first conquest of Mount Everest by a woman in 1975, accomplishing the feat via the southeast ridge route.<\/p>\n
She went on to conquer soaring peaks in several continents — Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Mount McKinley in the United States and the Vinson Massif in Antarctica — heralding the era of women climbers.<\/p>\n
Even after reaching the world’s highest peak, the Fukushima native continued climbing mountains at home and abroad.<\/p>\n
In an interview with AFP in 2003, she said: “I don’t have the desire to climb Everest again any more. If I had enough time and money to do so, I would rather climb other mountains that I have not attempted before.”<\/p>\n
Her last challenge was made in July when she climbed Mount Fuji, central Japan, with high school students, according to NHK.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"