Tabei reached Everest's summit just days after surviving a near-fatal avalanche that buried her expedition's camp.
Twelve days before her historic summit on May 16, 1975, Junko Tabei and her all-female Japanese expedition were struck by a devastating avalanche while camped at around 6,300 meters on Mount Everest. The avalanche buried Tabei and several of her Sherpa companions beneath snow and debris; Tabei was rendered briefly unconscious and had to be dug out.
Remarkably, rather than abandoning the expedition, Tabei recovered within days and continued the ascent, ultimately reaching the summit alongside Sherpa climber Ang Tshering. This resilience in the face of near-catastrophe became a central part of the narrative surrounding her achievement, illustrating both the extreme physical dangers of high-altitude mountaineering in the 1970s and Tabei's extraordinary determination.
The episode has since been cited by historians and mountaineers as emblematic of the era's primitive safety standards and communication systems on Everest, where climbers faced the mountain with far less institutional support, weather forecasting, or rescue infrastructure than exists today. Tabei's ability to push through such an experience and still achieve a world-first only amplified the significance of her accomplishment, transforming her into a symbol of perseverance as much as of gender-barrier-breaking achievement in exploration.