Junko Tabei, 77, was the first woman to climb Mt. Everest in 1977
First woman to climb Mount Everest dies
00:57 - Source: CNN

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Junko Tabei also climbed the "Seven Summits"

Her last climb was Japan's Mt. Fuji

CNN  — 

Junko Tabei, the first woman to climb the world’s highest peak, has died at age 77.

Tabei reached the 29,000-foot summit of Mount Everest in 1975. She was 35 at the time.

She died on Thursday at a hospital outside of Tokyo. She was diagnosed with cancer four years ago, but that did not stop her from mountaineering, it said.

Her milestones went beyond Mount Everest.

This photograph taken on April 20, 2015 shows a view of Mount Everest (C-top) towering over the Nupse, from the village of Tembuche in the Khumbu region of northeastern Nepal.  Sherpas, thought to be of Tibetan origin, have a long and proud history of mountaineering, and the term today is used for all Nepalese high-altitude porters and guides assisting climbing expeditions around Everest. The April 25 quake, which left more than 7,800 people dead across Nepal, was the Himalayan nation's deadliest disaster in over 80 years, and triggered an avalanche which killed 18 people on Everest, leading mountaineering companies to call off their spring expeditions, marking the second year with virtually no summits to the roof of the world.      AFP PHOTO / ROBERTO SCHMIDT        (Photo credit should read ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP/Getty Images)
How hard is it to climb Mount Everest?
01:08 - Source: CNN

In 1992, the Japanese climber conquered the so-called “Seven Summits” – becoming the first woman to scale the highest mountains on seven continents. The seven summits comprise Kilimanjaro, Denali, Elbrus, Aconcagua, Carstensz Pyramid, Vinson and Everest.

Her last climb was Japan’s Mount Fuji with a group of high school students in 2011, according to Japan’s state broadcaster NHK.