Junko Tabei was a Japanese mountaineer who was the first woman to ascent Mt. Everest and the first woman to ascent the "Seven Summits."  The Seven Summits are the highest mountain on each continent (Everest is one of the Seven Summits).  

Junko was considered to be a frail child, but she did not let that stop her from starting her mountain climbing career at the age of 10.   To continue her climbing passion, she had to buck a Japanese cultural society that believed women should stay home, raise children and serve tea.   She started a ladies mountain climbing club in what was considered at the time male dominated territory.  And in 1975, she left her daughter with her husband to climb Mt. Everest with a group from her ladies climbing club, gaining fame as the first woman to do so.  

In her later years she went back to school and obtained a degree in Environmentalism and spoke out about the amount of tourism happening on...