Junko Tabei, the first woman to climb the world’s highest peak, has died at age 77, according to Japanese media reports.
Tabei reached the 29,000-foot summit of Mount Everest in 1975. She was 35 at the time.
Japanese public broadcaster NHK said she died Thursday at a hospital outside of Tokyo. She was diagnosed with cancer four years ago, but that did not stop her from mountaineering, it said.
Her milestones went beyond Mount Everest.
In 1992, the Japanese climber conquered the so-called “Seven Summits” — becoming the first woman to scale the highest mountains on seven continents. The seven summits comprise Kilimanjaro, Denali, Elbrus, Aconcagua, Carstensz Pyramid, Vinson and Everest.
Her last climb was Japan’s Mount Fuji with a group of high school students in 2011, according to NHK.
