The first woman to climb Mount Everest dies at age 77

Junko Tabei, a mountaineer who reached the summit of the world’s highest peak in 1975, died of cancer on Thursday, according to Japanese public broadcaster NHK. She was 35 when she reached the 29,000 foot summit of Mount Everest in 1975.
After she climbed Mount Everest, she went ahead and climbed the highest peaks in 70 countries.

Tabei became the first woman to scale the tallest mountains on all 7 continentsin 1992, including Mt Kilimanjaro and Mt. Denali.
Tabei was diagnosed with Cancer 4 years ago but she continued to climb while undergoing treatment.

This post first appeared on Linda Ikeji's Blog. Read the original story here.