Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome my favorite murder.
Speaker 2: That's Georgia Hardstar.
Speaker 1: That's Karen Kellgera. This is a solo episode, and you
Speaker 1: know what that means.
Speaker 2: Makeup tips, makeup tips.
Speaker 1: I don't know how it happened.
Speaker 2: We're just like, let's start solo episodes with another one
Speaker 2: of our passions.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what's it called when you say you should try something?
Speaker 2: Recommendation? Thank you? That's right, recommendations and like a beauty
Speaker 2: stuff we talk. Yeah, it's like fun stuff.
Speaker 1: Do you want to go first time?
Speaker 2: Sure? I can never find the correct color of foundation. Sure,
Speaker 2: because my base color is red with green.
Speaker 1: You're also like, you seem like you should be pale,
Speaker 1: but your tan.
Speaker 2: Yes, right, I get people put pale makeup on me
Speaker 2: all the time, and then I look like it's cool. Right,
Speaker 2: there's a little brown under there and also a lot
Speaker 2: of red that reads is brown. The redness is a
Speaker 2: real problem.
Speaker 1: Sounds fun anyhow.
Speaker 2: There's a TikToker who I adore named Tyler Mars who
Speaker 2: she she has rosetia, so she's always giving these recommendations
Speaker 2: of like a tough down the red. It's just like
Speaker 2: I just look up if I need to get something
Speaker 2: So anyhow, there's a foundation that I found on TikTok
Speaker 2: of course, of course, and it's the brand is R. E. M.
Speaker 2: And it is the best foundation I've worn to date.
Speaker 1: Is it like is it red correction foundation or it's
Speaker 1: just foundation that that just works that way.
Speaker 2: It's like a it's a foundation color that somehow addresses
Speaker 2: all of the things that need to be covered without
Speaker 2: making me look like either a vampire or like I
Speaker 2: looked in high school with my one color of cover
Speaker 2: Girl just clowny, clowny.
Speaker 1: Have you smelled that recently? The like cover Girl powder?
Speaker 1: Oh my god, it'll bring you back.
Speaker 2: Like immediate bawling. And I just want to say, I
Speaker 2: have bought every other foundation. So it's like people are like,
Speaker 2: you've got to try it, our money, blah blah blah.
Speaker 2: And it's like, sure, except for that, for some reason,
Speaker 2: on me, it turns out orange.
Speaker 1: It's so about what it works for you. I use
Speaker 1: Charlotte Tillberry right now, but in three weeks it might
Speaker 1: not work anymore for me and look terrible.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So it's real high stakes and also let a
Speaker 2: panic decision making. So like now we're on camera again.
Speaker 2: Now we're on camera again, so I want to get
Speaker 2: it right. Arim's getting me there.
Speaker 1: I think mine is also like a face one. It's
Speaker 1: I got. We got our makeup done recently, and whenever
Speaker 1: I get my makeup done, I end up with tons
Speaker 1: of notes of what to buy because I don't fucking know,
Speaker 1: and the makeup artist is great. So the thing that
Speaker 1: I bought this time around, there's a drag queen named kim.
Speaker 2: Chi Kimchi, yeah.
Speaker 1: Who was on The Fine who was a finalist on
Speaker 1: Season A to RuPaul's drag Race. Kimchi has a makeup
Speaker 1: line and kim Chi's puff puff pass setting powder. I
Speaker 1: got in two collars, like one for under eye and
Speaker 1: one for my skin. I am obsessed with.
Speaker 2: It, okay, because you have been looking very like perfectly.
Speaker 1: Blurred, like maybe you need to get your checked.
Speaker 2: I mean exactly, you can't see I've been puff puff
Speaker 2: passing to myself right before the show starts. I'm going
Speaker 2: to try that for sure.
Speaker 1: Yeah. It's called puff puff pass setting powder. And you
Speaker 1: know it comes in such a like cute fun packaging
Speaker 1: that you're like, this isn't gonna do anything, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, Like, yes, my brain if that's how
Speaker 1: it works. But if the makeup artists hadn't like used
Speaker 1: it on me, I wouldn't have tried it. And now
Speaker 1: it's like I used two different types of powder, which
Speaker 1: is like, so not me. I'm so lowing.
Speaker 2: You're very advanced. I think this living in the cultural
Speaker 2: world of drag queen dominance has benefited and like it's
Speaker 2: raised all boats, because yeah, I care about makeup, but
Speaker 2: do I have that kind of time to be like
Speaker 2: bake it in with a triangle pad or whatever where
Speaker 2: it's like, okay, but maybe you're a.
Speaker 1: Drag queen, like you have to do that.
Speaker 2: You have to be like you know all the tricks, yes,
Speaker 2: all the tricks, and it has to stay on for
Speaker 2: like twelve hours through sweating all.
Speaker 1: The day things. Well as you and I always say,
Speaker 1: we must listen to drag queens more.
Speaker 2: Please always listen to drag Let them pass uh puff puff?
Speaker 1: No, I was gonna say, past legislation, that's the one.
Speaker 1: Let them pass legislation please. That's right.
Speaker 2: Well, what a perfect intro into my solo story for today. No,
Speaker 2: but why actually terrible? Okay, but why not? Well only
Speaker 2: in kind of in that it's about a woman, okay,
Speaker 2: who's a trailblazer who's doing it all for herself, much
Speaker 2: like kim Chi and the rest of the Rubaul Dragway cast. Yeah,
Speaker 2: shout out Katya. You covered the deaths on Mount Everest
Speaker 2: in our episode one seventy four.
Speaker 1: One of my favorite stories to cover of all time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was good.
Speaker 1: Don't think about it.
Speaker 2: We titled that episode rough Winds and high Water.
Speaker 1: That's funny.
Speaker 2: So we've talked about it before. When you think of
Speaker 2: Mount Everest, and I know you think about it a lot,
Speaker 2: the first name that usually pops into your head or
Speaker 2: anyone's head is Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man, along
Speaker 2: with Hisshrpa Tenzing Norgate, who got to the top of
Speaker 2: Mount Everest.
Speaker 1: In nineteen fifty three. First ones to do it, first.
Speaker 2: Two to do it, Okay, and it was in fifty three. Today,
Speaker 2: I'm going to tell you about the boundary breaking, trailblazing
Speaker 2: first woman to climb Mount Everest. This year marks the
Speaker 2: fiftieth anniversary of her achievements. But like many of the
Speaker 2: great historic women that we talk about on this show,
Speaker 2: you've probably never heard her name. Writer Jenny Hall reported
Speaker 2: on her for CNN writing quote, her bravery helped her
Speaker 2: lead record setting all women expeditions and overcome the mountain
Speaker 2: of sexism in this male dominated space. Yet very few organizations,
Speaker 2: even in Japan, have thought to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary
Speaker 2: of the first ascent of Everest by a woman. Well,
Speaker 2: then fine, I'll do it.
Speaker 1: It falls on Karen again.
Speaker 2: Once again, I'll do it. I'll celebrate women on Everest. Today,
Speaker 2: I'm going to tell you about an athlete who refused
Speaker 2: to take no for an answer, who defied strict cultural expectations,
Speaker 2: and who was so unstoppable even an avalanche couldn't keep
Speaker 2: her down. Say this is the story of Japanese mountaineer
Speaker 2: Junko to Baye.
Speaker 1: Amazing it Like, yes, I want to hear that. It
Speaker 1: never crossed my mind? Right? Perfect?
Speaker 2: Okay. Sources from this story that Marin used are a
Speaker 2: twenty seventeen Outside Magazine article by Brad Furnett entitled a
Speaker 2: Final Interview with Junko to bay E and a nineteen
Speaker 2: ninety six Sports Illustrated article by Robert Horn entitled No
Speaker 2: Mountain Too High for Her. How Junko to Baye defied
Speaker 2: Japanese views of women to become an expert climber amazing.
Speaker 2: The rest of the sources are in our show notes.
Speaker 2: So we begin in September of nineteen thirty nine when Junko,
Speaker 2: at the time her last name was Ishi Bashi, is
Speaker 2: born in a small town in Japan's Fukushima Prefecture. A
Speaker 2: prefecture is based a state, got it, But I love
Speaker 2: the word prefecture.
Speaker 1: The word is it? Yeah?
Speaker 2: I do do oh sorry, while we're here just because
Speaker 2: of that word. If you haven't watched Blue Eye Samurai
Speaker 2: on Netflix, it's an anime series and it is like
Speaker 2: an Oscar winning film. It is unbelievably made, great great.
Speaker 2: Fukushima Prefecture is one of the country's largest prefectures. I
Speaker 2: keep saying it stretch from the Pacific coast inward to
Speaker 2: the mountains. We all have heard of it from the
Speaker 2: devastating twenty eleven earthquake and then tsunami and then nuclear disaster.
Speaker 2: Very horrible time. But this is a stunning part of Japan,
Speaker 2: complete with ski resorts, hot springs, cherry blossoms, volcanic lakes,
Speaker 2: and beautiful places to hike. So it's no surprise that
Speaker 2: even as a little girl, Junco is captivated by the
Speaker 2: nature around her. When she's just ten years old, her
Speaker 2: teacher takes her class on field trips to two nearby mountains,
Speaker 2: both around six thousand feet in elevation, which aren't you huge,
Speaker 2: but they're not small either for kids especially, and Junko
Speaker 2: isn't the type of kid anyone would say was adventurous.
Speaker 2: She's very tiny. As a child, she endures multiple bouts
Speaker 2: of pneumonia, and even as an adult she only ever
Speaker 2: gets to four foot nine and about ninety pounds, So
Speaker 2: she's a tiny lady. But Junko says that because of
Speaker 2: her stature, she's quote stamped as a weak child. But
Speaker 2: something clicks for her on these mountain field trips, and
Speaker 2: her life is never the same after. She will later
Speaker 2: remember quote, I was so surprised by the rocky, dry
Speaker 2: hills and a stream of hot water that came from
Speaker 2: a hot spring. I was shocked to feel a little
Speaker 2: chilly while we were at the top of the mountain
Speaker 2: because it was summer. I realized that there were so
Speaker 2: many things in the world which I have never encountered,
Speaker 2: and that it is fun to see and learn directly
Speaker 2: through one's own experiences. I became determined to go wherever
Speaker 2: I could go. Wow, So this is just a child
Speaker 2: being like I love life. I'm into this. Although if
Speaker 2: I saw a hot spring in a Japanese mountain, I
Speaker 2: think I would lose it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure, so cool you can see in palm
Speaker 1: springs and it's still amazing iron is.
Speaker 2: But of course being a little girl with an interest
Speaker 2: in the outdoors comes with its challenges. It's post World
Speaker 2: War two Japan, so many people are struggling financially. The
Speaker 2: country as a whole is just trying to get his
Speaker 2: bearings after a horrible war. And of course, with hiking,
Speaker 2: by the time you invest in a pair of good
Speaker 2: boots and transportation to the trail, it could be considered
Speaker 2: expensive by some people and frivolous to spend money to
Speaker 2: basically just hike around a mountain in really tough economic times.
Speaker 2: But more than that, Junko is a girl, and at
Speaker 2: the time, Japan has very rigid social conventions for men
Speaker 2: and women, and hiking, climbing, and adventuring is squarely something
Speaker 2: men do. As Robert Horns reports for Sports Illustrated quote,
Speaker 2: despite Japan's tradition of explorers and ventures, many of those
Speaker 2: who dared to strike out on their own paths, especially women,
Speaker 2: risked the fate foreseen in the Japanese adage quote the
Speaker 2: nail that sticks up will be hammered down.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Oh my god, what a time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And adventurers dreams were often not considered appropriate for
Speaker 2: a young Japanese woman. So that's end quote. So after
Speaker 2: those formative grade school field trips, Junko never looks back
Speaker 2: because she doesn't care. She is not for some reason,
Speaker 2: and I would love to know it. Was it just
Speaker 2: her personality did she have like a badass mom, But
Speaker 2: like these incredibly strict kind of rules and expectations just
Speaker 2: don't FaZe her. By the time she's in high school,
Speaker 2: she plans hiking trips whenever she can. It's almost a
Speaker 2: meditative practice for her. She says, quote, it wasn't like
Speaker 2: a competition. If you go slow, you can make it
Speaker 2: to the top, or if you must, you can quit
Speaker 2: in the middle. But Japan was very poor at the time.
Speaker 2: I couldn't think about climbing mountains or any kind of leisure.
Speaker 2: We had to worry about what we would eat. So
Speaker 2: Junko eventually enrolls in an all women's college in Tokyo,
Speaker 2: where she studies English literature and plans on becoming a teacher.
Speaker 2: Unlike her fondness for outdoor activities, this is considered a
Speaker 2: respectable path for young women. All the while, Junko is
Speaker 2: dreaming about climbing, though. She manages to find a like
Speaker 2: minded female friend at school and they train together during
Speaker 2: the week. On the weekends they head out to the mountains,
Speaker 2: and by the time Junko graduates in nineteen sixty two,
Speaker 2: she's become an experienced mountaineer, so as any other climber
Speaker 2: with her skill level would do. Junko goes right ahead
Speaker 2: and joins several alpine clubs. The thing is, these are
Speaker 2: understood to be for men at the time. Nothing like
Speaker 2: an alpine club exists for female climbers, and the reaction
Speaker 2: to Junko's membership is mixed. A few of the men
Speaker 2: respect her skill and her sense of adventure, but others
Speaker 2: outright refuse to climb with her, and many think that
Speaker 2: she's only hanging around to find a husband. Okay, did
Speaker 2: you go Yeah, it's not gorgeous, no Japanese mountains. You
Speaker 2: like hiking, but you.
Speaker 1: Don't think women like hiking?
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, you like it just fine. Yeah, and that's fine,
Speaker 2: but Junko stays focused, and by her mid twenties, she
Speaker 2: summoned every one of Japan's most prominent peaks.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: This includes Mount Fuji, which is about twelve four hundred
Speaker 2: feet above sea level. And she's funding these climbs by
Speaker 2: working as an editor for an academic journal and giving
Speaker 2: piano and English lessons. She does it all, I mean,
Speaker 2: and she's tiny.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: She spends most of her downtime either climbing or training
Speaker 2: with the hopes of summoning larger and larger peaks. And
Speaker 2: then in nineteen sixty five, Junko meets a man named
Speaker 2: Masu Nobu Tabei. He's a seasoned Japanese mountaineer in his
Speaker 2: own right. So she falls in love with another mountaineer.
Speaker 1: That's romantic. I gotta find someone who at least who
Speaker 1: likes yourself supports your hobby.
Speaker 2: Yeah. They fall in love and they're married the next
Speaker 2: year when Junko is twenty seven years old. But her
Speaker 2: parents don't approve of this marriage because Masunobu doesn't have
Speaker 2: a college degree, but Junko marries him anyway. She doesn't
Speaker 2: give a shit about anything. She's like, oh is that
Speaker 2: your opinion about my life, I'll see you later.
Speaker 1: Enjoy it.
Speaker 2: And the two have a daughter together, who they named Noriko,
Speaker 2: and later they have a son named Shinya. So now
Speaker 2: is she not only the rare female mountaineer in nineteen
Speaker 2: sixties Japan, she's also a working mother. When she's in
Speaker 2: her early thirties, Junko says that she quote began to
Speaker 2: dream about going to the Himalayas with a team of
Speaker 2: only women. Woo to make that happen, she does something
Speaker 2: that's never been done before in Japan. In nineteen sixty nine,
Speaker 2: she forms the country's very first women's climbing organization. Its name,
Speaker 2: translated into English, is sometimes reported as Ladies Climbing Club
Speaker 2: and sometimes reported as Women's Mountaineering, depending on how people
Speaker 2: feel about it. Yeah, and the group's slogan is quote,
Speaker 2: let's go on an overseas expedition by.
Speaker 1: Ourselves translation yes, let's let's.
Speaker 2: Around fifteen women join Junko's group, each united by a
Speaker 2: dream to climb the world's tallest mountains, but finding time
Speaker 2: to train is not easy. Like Junco, these women have jobs,
Speaker 2: or families or both, and Japan's standard vacation time is
Speaker 2: just two weeks a year, which many people don't feel
Speaker 2: empowered to fully take because of Japan's intense work culture.
Speaker 2: So you have it, but you kind of aren't supposed
Speaker 2: to go on it. This is complicating in and of
Speaker 2: itself because these expeditions require time off for training and
Speaker 2: for travel, and on top of that, devoting time to
Speaker 2: a masculine hobby like mountaineering is stigmatized. In the nineteen seventies,
Speaker 2: the women face judgment for not wanting to devote their
Speaker 2: entire beings to their husbands and their children, to which
Speaker 2: Junko has said, quote, I am a housewife. I just
Speaker 2: climb mountains because I love it, and if people want
Speaker 2: to call me that crazy mountain woman, that's okay, cool
Speaker 2: love her. Eventually, Junko and her group plan an expedition
Speaker 2: to Anna Perna three in Nepal, which is nearly twenty
Speaker 2: five thousand feet in elevation. This is Junko's first time
Speaker 2: traveling outside of Japan, and she leads the climb. The
Speaker 2: group travels up a new route to Anna Perna three's summit,
Speaker 2: and they successfully reach the top on May nineteenth, nineteen seventy.
Speaker 2: Karen Kilgerrett is eight days old. It's her first week
Speaker 2: in the world. She's loving it. She's loving this energy.
Speaker 2: So they, on May nineteenth, nineteen seventy, become the first
Speaker 2: women ever to climb Anna Purna three.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: And now their slogan is, let's be the first woman
Speaker 2: to climb Anna Purna three by ourselves.
Speaker 1: That's not true.
Speaker 2: It's there on the summit of Anna Purna three that
Speaker 2: Junko experiences another sort of spiritual awakening. Robert Horne reports
Speaker 2: and Sports Illustrated quote, the ascent profoundly changed her. There
Speaker 2: would be no more slaving in the late hours to
Speaker 2: prove that she was her company's most loyal worker, no
Speaker 2: more fears about speaking her mind, no more concerns about
Speaker 2: what people said behind her back.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: It's also in this moment that Junco really starts to
Speaker 2: consider climbing Mount Everest. Because she did that, Yeah, you
Speaker 2: might as well do this. Fine.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: She brings the idea to her climbing club and they
Speaker 2: begin to mobilize with that goal in mind. But Junko says, quote,
Speaker 2: most of the men in the alpine community were against
Speaker 2: our plan, saying that it would be impossible to go
Speaker 2: to Everest on a woman's only expedition. Why they're just
Speaker 2: so negative?
Speaker 1: God, can we get a little positivity? How about or
Speaker 1: just shut up?
Speaker 2: Or you show it if you can't zip it. So
Speaker 2: Junco and her crew set out to prove them wrong.
Speaker 2: They don't need us saying this, they're already doing it.
Speaker 2: It already happened. But getting to Everest is not easy.
Speaker 2: Of course. The women first need permission from Nepal's government,
Speaker 2: so they apply in nineteen seventy one, but then they're
Speaker 2: told that there's no space for their expedition and there
Speaker 2: won't be until nineteen seventy five five, so that would
Speaker 2: be upsetting. You have to wait four years to the
Speaker 2: average person, But they're not discouraged. They just figure it.
Speaker 2: It will give them more time to train, and Junko
Speaker 2: uses this long waiting period to help the group nail
Speaker 2: down sponsorships. But of course finding financial support is tricky.
Speaker 2: As Junko puts it, quote most companies reaction that was
Speaker 2: for women, it's impossible to climb Mount Everest. No vision, Yeah,
Speaker 2: why aren't you the company that goes? But if they
Speaker 2: do it totally will all.
Speaker 1: Be And even if they don't, they'll still get fucking
Speaker 1: yeah average like eyes on the prize.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we just have come. We truly have come a
Speaker 2: long way baby in marketing. Yes, and then we both
Speaker 2: smoke because now it's the Virginia Minute.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Plus, in the early seventies, Japan experiences a years long
Speaker 2: oil related economic crisis, so there's just less sponsorship money
Speaker 2: to go around. Fortunately, the group locks down two sponsorships,
Speaker 2: one from a major Upanese newspaper and one from a
Speaker 2: TV station, but the budget's relatively small. The mail groups
Speaker 2: often raise hundreds of thousands of dollars when they do
Speaker 2: their climbs, and they raise it in Japan and elsewhere.
Speaker 2: Junko's group only manages to raise about seventy thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: So to pick up the slack, each member has to
Speaker 2: come up with an additional approximately five thousand dollars each,
Speaker 2: and it's one point five million yen that they have
Speaker 2: to come up with, and it's worth do you want
Speaker 2: to guess in today's money?
Speaker 1: He said, they have to come up with five thousand
Speaker 1: dollars in the seventies, which in today's money would be
Speaker 1: twenty eight.
Speaker 2: Thirty thousand, so close. So finally, nineteen seventy five rolls
Speaker 2: around it's time for the women to head to Nepal.
Speaker 2: Years later, Outside magazine reporter Brad Frenette will ask Junko
Speaker 2: if she ever felt hesitation as the climb date approached.
Speaker 2: She says, quote, no, I never thought of giving up
Speaker 2: once we had worked so hard to obtain the climbing permit. Yeah,
Speaker 2: she got the paperwork. No, she's not going anywhere. So
Speaker 2: that spring the women set out. Junko is thirty five
Speaker 2: at the time, and she serves as co leader for
Speaker 2: the fifteen woman expedition. They're accompanied by six experienced Sherpa guides,
Speaker 2: and together they embark on the most difficult, grueling climb
Speaker 2: of their lives. Any ever's climb is punishing, and Junko's
Speaker 2: is no exception. But by May third, nineteen seventy five,
Speaker 2: her group has steadily made it more than twenty thousand
Speaker 2: feet and they have about nine thousand feet to go now.
Speaker 2: Around this point they encounter terrible weather, which is a
Speaker 2: reality climber's face of course, as they go up Everest,
Speaker 2: especially the closer they get to the top, So these
Speaker 2: gals set up camp. They try to get some rest
Speaker 2: before continuing on but it's not a lovely bucolic spot.
Speaker 2: It's freezing cold. They're in tents that are being whipped
Speaker 2: around by these terrible winds. Hours later, when they're sleeping,
Speaker 2: not long after midnight on May fourth, Junko is awakened
Speaker 2: by an extremely loud, low rumble, and she instantly knows
Speaker 2: what it is. It's an avalanche barreling down the mountain.
Speaker 1: I saw a video recently of an avalanche, and I.
Speaker 2: Like, no, no, no, no, no no.
Speaker 1: It's terrifying.
Speaker 2: It's horrible. So before she can even react, Junko is
Speaker 2: swept up by a wall of snow and ice. She
Speaker 2: is tangled in her tent with the some other climbers.
Speaker 2: So they are tumbling down the mountain, getting knocked all
Speaker 2: over the place and against each other, and it's really
Speaker 2: violent and chaotic, of course. And then once it ends,
Speaker 2: they're buried in the snow, still in the tent. Yeah,
Speaker 2: while wrapped up. When it all comes to stop, Junko
Speaker 2: is an extreme pain. She worries she's going to die.
Speaker 2: She then has a vision of her daughter Narko playing
Speaker 2: outside their home back in Tokyo, and then she blacks out.
Speaker 1: Jesus.
Speaker 2: The next thing she remembers is the sherpa guides pulling
Speaker 2: her out of the snow by her ankles. My god,
Speaker 2: which actually probably be pretty easy because she's little tiny. Somehow,
Speaker 2: miraculously everyone survives the avalanche, which Junko credits to the
Speaker 2: experience and quick thinking of their sherpas. Thank god. I mean,
Speaker 2: like fifteen women just but they're not totally unscathed. Junko
Speaker 2: is battered and bruised, and her body is extremely sore.
Speaker 2: She has to rest for two days before she's even
Speaker 2: able to lift herself up. Wow, let alone keep climbing.
Speaker 1: Oh, like that would be the end of it.
Speaker 2: Yes, no for me, like like thanks so much, but she's.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for there was an avalanche on me.
Speaker 2: But she's like, we got the permit. Yeah, we're not leaving. Yeah,
Speaker 2: m she And actually what she did say is quote,
Speaker 2: as soon as I knew everyone was alive, I was
Speaker 2: determined to continue.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: The women continue working towards Everest's peak, with Junko still
Speaker 2: at the helm. At times, her injuries are so bad
Speaker 2: she has to crawl on her hands and knees.
Speaker 1: So fun She's no excuse, I.
Speaker 2: Don't you get out to Griffith Park tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Oh, I'm talking about like doing my laundry. I'm not
Speaker 1: even talking about it.
Speaker 2: Just do it on your hands and knees.
Speaker 1: I can't. I have no hands my laundry.
Speaker 2: When this, yeah, I know, I mean I think there's
Speaker 2: some people born with this like brain chemistry that's like
Speaker 2: up up up yeah yeah yeah, God bless them. So
Speaker 2: she has to crawl on her hands and knees, but
Speaker 2: she just keeps going. And then twelve days later, the
Speaker 2: team reaches the final camp of their climb, which is
Speaker 2: just below Everest's Peak. By this point, they are running
Speaker 2: low on oxygen. Originally they'd plan to send two women
Speaker 2: up to the summit. Now they only have enough oxygen
Speaker 2: to send one. These women clearly love one another. On
Speaker 2: this mountaineering team, no one wants to take the glory
Speaker 2: for themselves. But after they discuss it, the team decides
Speaker 2: Junko should be the one to make the final push
Speaker 2: to the top. They're like, get on your hands and
Speaker 2: knees and you crawl up there. So now Junko realizes
Speaker 2: that to get to Everest's summit, she has to climb
Speaker 2: this skinny ridge of ice. We may have talked about
Speaker 2: it on your story. I can't remember. It is just
Speaker 2: wide enough for a human body a ridge of ice.
Speaker 2: There are fifteen thousand foot drops on either side.
Speaker 1: For that drop.
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, it's called the Knife Edge ridge, and it
Speaker 2: leads up to the Hillary Step, which is like the
Speaker 2: final spot before you go you're on the peak. Oh
Speaker 2: my god, so it's named after Edmund Hillary. She's going
Speaker 2: to Hillary Step.
Speaker 1: That must be just like a moment for those climbers.
Speaker 2: Right, and then also for her where it's like I
Speaker 2: don't know if they are aware of it, but like
Speaker 2: she's the first one. Yeah, so it's like a true moment.
Speaker 2: One wrong move here, though, would absolutely result in a
Speaker 2: fatal fall. It's all or nothing. I didn't understand that,
Speaker 2: I think until I read this story. Junko, who's accompanied
Speaker 2: by a celebrated Sherpa guide named on Sharing now must
Speaker 2: crawl sideways while sort of hugging the ridge to make
Speaker 2: it to the Hillary Step, later says quote, I'd never
Speaker 2: felt that tense in my entire life. I felt all
Speaker 2: my hair standing on end. I had no idea I
Speaker 2: would have to face that, even though I read all
Speaker 2: the accounts of previous expeditions. I got so angry at
Speaker 2: the previous climbers who hadn't warned me about that knife
Speaker 2: edge traverse in their expedition records. Isn't that so like men?
Speaker 1: My heart just dropped thinking of doing that, like crawling.
Speaker 2: Hugging, and she didn't know it was share. No one
Speaker 2: said hey, also real quick, Yeah, things are scary. No,
Speaker 2: But just afternoon on May sixteenth, nineteen seventy five, Junko
Speaker 2: Tabe reaches the summit of Mount Everest and becomes the
Speaker 2: first woman ever and the thirty sixth person in history
Speaker 2: to do it. She's made it to the highest point
Speaker 2: on Earth. Wow, so thirty five dudes. Yeah, didn't tell
Speaker 2: the secret.
Speaker 1: Sucks.
Speaker 2: Later, when asked if she shouted or cried when she
Speaker 2: reached the summit, Junko simply says, quote, I didn't shout anything.
Speaker 2: I just thought, oh, I don't have to climb anymore. Yeah,
Speaker 2: we love her.
Speaker 1: Got to save your energy. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Word of Junko's historic summit spreads quickly and becomes a
Speaker 2: celebratory moment around the world. The King of Nepal even
Speaker 2: reaches out and awards medals of honor to Junko and
Speaker 2: the rest of the women in her climbing team Wow
Speaker 2: back in Japan, Any naysayers the women may encounter are
Speaker 2: overshadowed by a wall of glowing media coverage. They're profiled
Speaker 2: in newspapers, covered in countless news reports, they become the
Speaker 2: subject of a TV mini series, and they're memorialized in textbooks. Junko,
Speaker 2: of course, draws a particular amount of interest from the public,
Speaker 2: and not just because of her historic summit. She's also
Speaker 2: celebrated for her humble leadership and her devotion to her teammates,
Speaker 2: and for how she never once gave up despite her
Speaker 2: injuries from being in that avalanche. Junko doesn't exactly love
Speaker 2: being in the spotlight, though, and she knows she could
Speaker 2: capitalize off of all this media interest and that would
Speaker 2: certainly help pay for future climbs. She chooses to decline
Speaker 2: all corporate sponsorships, and she does this because quote, if
Speaker 2: I accept a sponsorship, then climbing the mountain is not
Speaker 2: my own experience. It's like working for the company.
Speaker 1: Wow Yep yeah.
Speaker 2: Instead, Junko supports herself by continuing to teach music and English,
Speaker 2: but also working as a hiking guide, writing books and
Speaker 2: giving speeches. In those speeches, she encourages others to chase
Speaker 2: their dreams, even if it means defining social norms. Junko
Speaker 2: tells crowds to quote, be the nail that sticks out. Yeah,
Speaker 2: be the nail that sticks out.
Speaker 1: That's what you said to me. Well, then I'm going
Speaker 1: to use it against you.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, turn it around.
Speaker 1: Hell yeah.
Speaker 2: Junco spends the rest of her life doing exactly what
Speaker 2: she loves, which of course, is climbing. In nineteen ninety two,
Speaker 2: at fifty three years old, she completes another historic first.
Speaker 2: Junka becomes the very first woman to complete this seven summits,
Speaker 2: which are the highest mountains on each continent.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: These include Denali, Kilimanjaro, and Mount Vincent in Antarctica.
Speaker 1: What that was your mom?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 1: How inspiring would that be?
Speaker 2: You keep coming home with a bag of laundry and
Speaker 2: you're like, hello, is any no one?
Speaker 1: No one open? Like i'd bean like inspire inspiration wise
Speaker 1: where it's like, oh, my mom's fifty something like I should.
Speaker 2: Probably like do something like her, Yes, exactly. Over the years,
Speaker 2: Junko becomes more and more interested in the environmental toll
Speaker 2: of modern climbing, especially on Everest, and by the nineteen
Speaker 2: nineties there's a shift towards high budget commercial expeditions, which
Speaker 2: are often taken by wealthy climbers who outsource much of
Speaker 2: the heavy lifting to guides and sherpas.
Speaker 1: Right, it's like luxury hiking.
Speaker 2: Yes, and Juneo's very critical of luxury hiking, calling them
Speaker 2: quote intensive care unit climbers. Wow, that's because of all
Speaker 2: the critical support they have along the way. But what
Speaker 2: troubles her the most is all of the damage caused
Speaker 2: by the increased foot trap and trash left behind on Everest,
Speaker 2: which is a problem that's only gotten worse over the years.
Speaker 2: Oh sorry, I thought I was in a quote that
Speaker 2: whole time, But it was just intense intensive care unit
Speaker 2: climbers was just her little okay quote, that's a barbed yeah,
Speaker 2: I say, but it's true. It's like you're creating, you're
Speaker 2: not trained, you're not serious about it truly, and then
Speaker 2: when you get up there, they have to helicopter you out. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's what happened when I went skiing for the first time.
Speaker 2: So to do what she can to protect her beloved mountains,
Speaker 2: Junko not only studies the impacts of trash on mountain landscapes,
Speaker 2: but she also starts organizing clean up trips both in
Speaker 2: Japan and abroad. Her husband and children often join her
Speaker 2: on these trips, and along the way she never stops
Speaker 2: uplifting other women. By two thousand and five, Junko has
Speaker 2: participated in forty four all female clients.
Speaker 1: Holy shit, But really.
Speaker 2: She's interested in cultivating young mountaineers, so she starts leading
Speaker 2: yearly expeditions to Mount Fuji with Japanese high schoolers, and
Speaker 2: she climbs with them every year, even after she's diagnosed
Speaker 2: with stomach cancer in twenty twelve.
Speaker 1: Twenty twelve. Wow.
Speaker 2: Yes, So even as Junko battles cancer, she continues taking
Speaker 2: trips to Mount Fuji, but in twenty sixteen, for the
Speaker 2: first time, she has to stop halfway up the climb,
Speaker 2: and she passes away a few months later in October
Speaker 2: at the age of seventy seven.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: So she basically started climbing mountains as a child that
Speaker 2: never stopped.
Speaker 1: That's so inspiring I know.
Speaker 2: Today, Junko Tobaee is remembered for her endless courage, relentless
Speaker 2: environmental advocacy, and dedication to uplifting fellow adventurers, especially women,
Speaker 2: and of course the many climbs she completed. Throughout her
Speaker 2: amazing life. She summoned at least seventy mountains across the globe,
Speaker 2: and in doing so, she proved wrong those who doubted
Speaker 2: her and helped change the pervasive image of what a
Speaker 2: mountaineer looks like. Shortly before Junko's death in twenty seventeen,
Speaker 2: she was asked what she would say to her younger
Speaker 2: self if she had the opportunity. She responded with advice
Speaker 2: that we could all stand to hear. Junko said, quote,
Speaker 2: do not give up, keep on your quest. Wow, and
Speaker 2: that's the story of trailblazing Japanese mountaineer Junko to bay.
Speaker 1: Holy shit, man, maybe I'll start hiking again.
Speaker 2: You could just do flat, flat hikes, yeah, you know,
Speaker 2: to start Yeah.
Speaker 1: Is that still a hike or is that just walking?
Speaker 2: I mean, I think it's you can use whatever your
Speaker 2: word you want, right, they can't prove it wasn't a hike.
Speaker 1: Right, there's a slight incline.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it still counts. Also, the thing I really like
Speaker 2: in the message of this Junko's message. But then, like
Speaker 2: the way she lived her life, I was, of course
Speaker 2: watching this TikTok this morning where they're like, how do
Speaker 2: we dismantle the patriarchy? How would women do that? And
Speaker 2: it's just this idea of like, you don't stay quiet,
Speaker 2: you don't fall prey to these cultural restrictions or norms
Speaker 2: of women are like this, or women are supposed to
Speaker 2: do this. You make your own money, you make your
Speaker 2: own business. You don't give up even when things are hard,
Speaker 2: or even when people say shit about you. It's like
Speaker 2: you just keep going and you just keep doing the
Speaker 2: thing you want to do and let them talk.
Speaker 1: Right, Like, you don't have to debate them, not all.
Speaker 1: You don't have to argue with them online, you don't
Speaker 1: have to like engage, just keep doing what you're doing.
Speaker 2: Because doing it is the example for the next generation.
Speaker 2: We have to show women, young women what's possible and
Speaker 2: then they can do it. Then everyone's just doing it
Speaker 2: for each other.
Speaker 1: Podcasting that's our So we're showing.
Speaker 2: Them podcasting and this podcasting is the same as mountaineering.
Speaker 1: This is stolen valorioe. Yeah, and I'm proud of it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I am too. Well, that's a solo story.
Speaker 1: Great job. That was definitely one for the books. Thank you,
Speaker 1: Thank you guys so much for listening.
Speaker 2: Do not give up. No, keep on your quests. Yeah,
Speaker 2: stay sexy and don't get murdered.
Speaker 1: Goodbye, Elvis. Do you want a cookie?
Speaker 2: This has been an exactly right production.
Speaker 1: Our senior producer is Molly Smith and our associate producer
Speaker 1: is Tessa Hughes.
Speaker 2: Our editor is Aristotle lass Vedo.
Speaker 1: This episode was mixed by Leona Squalocci.
Speaker 2: Our researchers are Mayor McGlashan and Ali Elkin.
Speaker 1: Email your hometowns to My Favorite Murder at gmail dot com.
Speaker 2: And follow the show on Instagram at my Favorite Murder.
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Speaker 2: Goodbye,