History
The Himalayas Continue to Enchant Japanese Climbers
Large numbers of mountain lovers from Japan are regular visitors to Nepal since the ascent of Mt. Manaslu in 1956 by a Japanese expedition team. Many Japanese mountaineers have climbed the high peaks of the Himalayas, including Sagarmatha (Mt. Everest).
World Firsts
Ms. Junko Tabei, a member of the Japanese women's Everest expedition team, successfully reached the summit of Sagarmatha on May 16, 1975. Ms. Tabei, being the first woman in the world to scale Sagarmatha, was enthusiastically praised by people all around the world for her brilliant achievement in a year that was designated international women's year.
The year 2002 has been even more remarkable than previous years due to the achievements of some great explorers who have set new world records for the twenty-first century.
Sherpas carrying loads across the
Manaslu glacier, heading towards
Naike Col in 1956 |
Ms. Junko Tabei on the
top of Sagarmatha |
Ms. Tamae Watanabe (63*) succeeded in climbing to the top of Sagarmatha on May 16, 2002. She is the oldest woman in the world to reach the top successfully.
Mr. Yuichiro Miura (69*) internationally well known as "the man who skied down Sagarmatha" and his son Gota Miura (32*) reached the top of Cho Oyu (8,201m), the sixth highest mountain in the world on May 9, 2002. He was not only the oldest man to reach a summit of 8000m, but with Gota, was a member of the first successful father and son duo to climb an 8000m peak.
Ms. Tamae Watanabe on the
top of Sagarmatha |
Mr. Yuichiro Miura and his son
Gota Miura at Cho Oyu |
Ms. Toshiko Uchida (71*) overturned the record only months later by successfully climbing Mt. Cho Oyu on October 1, 2002 becoming the oldest person atop this mountain.
Mr. Ken Noguchi (29*), who has made a name for himself as a committed advocate for the environment, organized a clean-up expedition to the South Col starting from Everest-Lhotse base camp from April 12 to May 22, 2002 and brought down a large amount of waste material.
He had previously made clean-up expeditions to Sagarmatha in 2000 and 2001.
(*The ages mentioned above are the respective ages of the climbers when
scaling the mountains.)
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