Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world. It is in the Himalayan Mountains between Nepal and China, and it is 8,900 meters high. Sir Edmund Hillary from New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay from Nepal were the first people ever to climb Mount Everest. They climbed it in 1953. Men from several different countries climbed it after that.
Junko Tabei, a Japanese from Hokkaido, was the first woman to make this difficult climb. A Tokyo newspaper-television company organized the Mount Everest climb in 1975. They chose fifteen women from mountaineering clubs to go to Nepal. The group climbed for several days. Then there was an avalanche. The heavy ice and snow injured ten of the women. They had to stop climbing. The other five continued.
Only Ms. Tabei was able to climb the last 70 meters. She was standing on top of the world. She was the first woman there. Ms. Tabei was 35 years old at the time. She started climbing mountains in 1960. She still climbs mountains. She is not an ordinary Japanese housewife. Her husband works for Honda Motor Company. He likes to climb mountains, too. But he can't have enough vacation from his work to go with his wife all the time. So he stays home to take care of the house and children.
Ms. Tabei earns money for her trips by teaching English and piano to children. She also speaks to groups of people about her mountain climbing. She climbs a mountain about every three years. She climbed the highest mountains on six continents. Finally, she wants to climb the highest mountain in every country in the world. When she reaches the top of a mountain, she thinks, "I'm glad that I'm at the top." Then she climbs back down.
No comments:
Post a Comment