What Happened on May 16th- First Woman to Mt. Everest’s Summit

Mount Everest

On May 16, 1975, via the southeast ridge route, Japanese mountaineer Junko Tabei becomes the first woman to reach the summit of Mt. Everest, the tallest mountain in the world.

Junko Tabei

 

Located in the central Himalayas on the border of China and Nepal, Everest stands 29,035 feet above sea level.

Called Chomo-Lungma, or “Mother Goddess of the Land,” by the Tibetans, the English named the mountain after Sir George Everest, an early 19th-century British surveyor of the Himalayas.

Sir George Everest

In May 1953, climber and explorer Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay of Nepal made the first successful climb of the peak.

Sir Edmund Hillary (L) and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa display their climbing gear at the British Embassy in Kathmandu following their conquest of Mount Everest in 1953 in this undated handout photograph. Nepali Sherpa friends of Sir Hillary, who died on January 11, 2008, lit butter lamps and offered special Buddhist prayers in monasteries for the mountaineer, calling him a great philanthropist and friend of Nepal. Hillary, who scaled Mount Everest in 1953 along with Nepal’s Tenzing Norgay Sherpa, spent much of his life afterwards helping Sherpa communities in Nepal, including projects to build hospitals and schools. REUTERS/Picture Norgay Archive/Handout (NEPAL).

Hillary was later knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for the achievement.

Hillary after he was Knighted by Queen Elizabeth II

Ten years later, American James Whittaker reached Everest’s summit with his Sherpa climbing partner, Nawang Gombu.

Jim Whittaker, left, and Sherpa Nawang Gombu summited Mount Everest together in 1963

In 1975, Junko Tabei conquered the mountain, and in 1988 Stacy Allison became the first American woman to successfully climb Everest.

The first American woman to reach the peak of Mount Everest, Stacy Allison