Yasuko Namba

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Yasuko Namba was famous in her native Japan for becoming only the second Japanese woman (after Junko Tabei) to reach all of the Seven Summits including Everest, where she died. Namba worked as a businesswoman for Federal Express in Japan, but her hobby of mountaineering took her all over the world. She first summitted Kilimanjaro on New Year's Day in 1982, and summitted Aconcagua exactly two years later. She reached the summit of Denali on 1 July 1985, and the summit of Elbrus on 1 August 1992. After summitting the Vinson Massif on 29 December 1993 and the Carstensz Pyramid on 12 November 1994, Namba's final summit to reach was Mount Everest. She signed on with Rob Hall's guiding company, Adventure Consultants, and in late April 1996 began her acclimatization on the world's highest mountain. On May 10, 1996, the 47-year-old Namba reached the summit of Everest, becoming the oldest woman to do so (her record was later beaten by Anna Czerwi ska of Poland who summitted Everest at age 50). She was still high on the mountain rather late into the afternoon, and was descending when the infamous blizzard struck.