The team of JWEE (Japanese Women’s Everest Expedition) consisted of fifteen, mostly working women including teachers, a computer programmer and a juvenile counselor. Two of them were mothers. “Someone even said to me that instead of climbing, I should stay home and watch my children,” says Junko Tabei who, on May 16th, 1975, proved them wrong by standing on the highest peak on the planet. No other woman and only 38 men had summited the Everest before her.
In those days, high altitude mountains like Mt. Everest (also known in Nepal as Sagarmāthā and in Tibet as Chomolungma) were climbed using the “expedition style” or “siege” method of establishing multiple campsites along the route. Food and supplies would be carried up to fully stock each campsite, and then the climbers would work their way from one established site to the next. Because they didn’t have the technology that is available now, everything was significantly heavier and bulkier than the equipment modern mountaineers rely upon. High altitudes meant snow, freezing temperatures and dangerously insufficient oxygen supplies. The expeditions often met with casualties or even fatalities. If one member reached the summit, the expedition was considered a success.
JWEE, headed by Eiko Hisano, was a part of the Joshi Tohan Kurabu (Ladie’s Climbing Club: LCC) founded in 1969. It was created because in those days in Japan, female members of the large expedition almost had no chance to be chosen as a summiter. After the successful summit of Annapurna III (7,555 m /24,786 ft) on May 19, 1970 by Tabei and Hiroko Hirakawa, LCC decided to attack Mount Everest.
Securing funding for their expedition was harder than expected for the fifteen women. “I was told, ‘we can’t be a sponsor to something that is bound to fail,’” Tabei recalls. Other members weren’t happy about how they were portrayed by the Japanese media: “Newspaper articles liked mocking us. They would use the picture of us applying a lip balm and say ‘even in the mountain, they don’t skip wearing the make-up.’ For a lot of people, it was a joke. They didn’t think we would make it.”
Although they obtained last-minute funding from a newspaper and television station, all the members still had to pay an amount that was almost equal to Japan’s average salary. One member’s father sold his rice paddy that had been passed down through generations. He did this without hesitation, telling his daughter: “Don’t live life with regrets.
The expedition was thoroughly researched and planned for 1,400 days before the women set out.
To save money, they would use recycled car covers to sew up water-proof pouches and over-gloves. They purchased goose down from China and made their own sleeping bags. Students at school collected unused packets of jam for their teachers.
Their willingness to succeed was most apparent when they were beset by an avalanche. Their tents were swept away and buried by snow. Luckily, the tents of their Sherpa guides were safe. Thanks to their prompt rescue efforts, members’ lives were saved. Their tents, however, were badly damaged, and several expedition members including Tabei were injured. Usually, such an event would mean the end of the expedition, but the women refused to give up. They sewed up the tents by themselves and kept on going…
