Japanese Woman has reached the World’s Tallest 14 Peaks

Japanese woman, Naoko Watanabe, 44, has summited all 14 of the world’s tallest mountains, as well as having summited the world’s second highest peak, K-2, three times, a world record. She became the first Japanese woman to reach the summit all of the world’s 14 highest peaks in October 2024, when she reached the 8,027 meter Mt. Shishapangma in China.

She recently told the Associated Press in an interview in Tokyo that she doesn’t consider herself a mountaineer. She said she is just an ordinary person who happens to achieve records while climbing during her vacations. Her first 8,000 meter mountain was twenty years ago, when she was a student nurse, and reached the summit of 8,201 meter Cho Oyu, the world’s sixth highest mountain on the China-Nepal border. Her medical training has helped her in emergency situations in her 31 expeditions over the last 20 years. 

She is planning to return to Pakistan’s Nanga Parbat (known as the killer mountain), this month with a group of amateurs, most of whom will stay in base camp. She said she will probably end up climbing mountains in the Himalayas about 100 times. 

I am in awe and I wish her all the best in her future adventures!