A collection of stories and reflections based on the memoirs of Junko
Tabei (1939-2016), the first woman to climb Mount Everest and the Seven
Summits.
New in paperback, Honouring High Places is a compelling collection of
highlights from Junko Tabei's stirring life that she considered
important, inspiring, and interesting to mountaineering culture. Until
now, her works have been available only in Japanese, and RMB is honoured
to be sharing these profound and moving stories with the
English-speaking world for the first time.
The collection opens on Mount Everest, where the first all-women's
expedition is met with disaster but pushes on against all odds. The
story then shifts to the early years of Tabei's life and reflects on her
countryside childhood as a frail girl with no talent for sport, and
cultural expectations that ignored her passion for mountains.
With reminiscences of the early days of female climbers on Everest, the
deaths of fellow mountaineers, Tabei's pursuit of Mount Tomur, a cancer
diagnosis, and efforts to restore a love for nature in the surviving
youth of the Fukushima earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan in 2011,
this beautifully curated collection of essays captures the essence of a
notable time and the strength of character of one of the 20th and 21st
centuries' female mountaineering pioneers.
