There are more ways than ever to listen to History Daily ad free.

Listen with Wundry Plus in the Wundry app.

As a member of Noiser Plus at Noiser.com or in Apple Podcasts,

or you can get all of History Daily plus other fantastic history podcasts at into History.com. It's May 16th, 1975, near the top of Mount Everest.

Japanese climber Junco Toe

stairs at the perilous strip of land separating her from the mountains peak.

She shutters at the almost 20,000 foot drop on either side of the narrow ridge. Trembling, Junco digs one of her spiked boots into the ground,

but she struggles to find stable footing.

Unable to balance upright, Junco gets on all fours

and straddles the ridge with her body.

With her upper half on one side and her lower body on the other, Junko begins to crawl sideways.

But as she crosses the ridge, she can feel her grip loosening.

Junko gasps as one of her feet slips out from under her,

so she catches herself just before she falls.

Steadying her nerves, she kicks the spikes beneath her boots even harder into the ice,

determined not to give up. With her eyes fixed on the end of the ridge,

Junko begins to climb the narrow strip of land before making her way to the top of Mount Everest.

Born in the Japanese Prefecture of Fukushima in 1939, Junko to Bay grew up amidst widespread

poverty induced by World War II.

Junko, an especially small woman, was branded a weak child at an early age and she never grew taller than

four foot nine inches or exceeded a hundred pounds. But a fourth grade field trip

to the mountains planted the seeds of a lifelong passion that turned the Dominion of Junko into a formidable climber.

...