Google Doodle celebrates Junko Tabei’s 80th birthday

New Delhi : Google Doodle on Sunday paid tribute to the famous Japanese mountaineer Junko Tabei on her 80th birthday. She was the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest on Sunday. Tabei is also the first woman to climb all seven summits by reaching the highest peak on every continent.

Junko Tabei passed away in 2016. She devoted her life in scaling peaks, climbing the tallest mountains in more than 70 countries.

Her philosophy was to live life to the fullest. “I want to climb even more mountains,” she said in a 1991 interview with The Associated Press, 16 years after conquering Everest. “To think, ‘It was great,’ and then die.”

Living her dream life, she founded the Ladies Climbing Club in 1969 with the slogan “Let’s go on an overseas expedition by ourselves,” and reached the summit of Everest on May 16, 1975, as the leader of the climbing party of an all-female Japanese team.

“Most Japanese men of my generation would expect the woman to stay at home and clean house,” the mother of two said in the 1991 interview.

In 1992, she achieved the feat of scaling all seven summits, becoming the first woman to reach the highest peaks of the seven continents.