Mount Qomolangma is the highest mountain in the world. It is in the Himalayan Mountains between Nepal (尼泊尔) and China, and it is 8,900 metres high. Sir Edmund Hillary from New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay from Nepal were the first people ever to climb Mount Everest in 1953. Men from several different countries climbed it after that.

Junko Tabei, a Japanese was the first woman to make this difficult climb. A Japanese newspaper-television company chose the fifteen women from mountaineering clubs to climb Mount Qomolangma in 1975. The group climbed for several days. Then there was an accident. The heavy ice and snow hurt ten of the women. They had to stop climbing. The other five went on climbing.

Only Ms Tabei was able to climb the last 70 metres. She was standing on the 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. Ms Tabei makes money for her trips by teaching English and piano to children. She climbs a mountain about every three years. She has climbed some of the highest mountains in six countries. 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.”