Annapurna III

She would have struggled to secure funding and to even be taken seriously.

It wasn't until she returned home to Japan from a successful ascent of Annapurna III on another expedition in 1970 that she would be noted in the local Japanese climbing community and be considered for financial and media support in the future.

Junko's team received about one-tenth of the funding that their male counterpart team received, so $100,000 at the time, and the men received a million dollars.

So that's...

Obviously, we're going to talk about summiting Everest, but it comes a little way into the book.

It's a few chapters in, and before we get there, there's a very significant chapter that we've been talking about, about Annapurna III.

And Junko, I understand, was very insistent that that chapter go in.

Tell me about that, why she wanted us to know more about it.

I was rapidly losing interest in reaching the summit myself, and I was ready to tell people to do whatever they pleased.

Then I stopped.

I was a candidate for the summit of Annapurna III, based on my mountaineering skill and strength.

And I suddenly felt more sure of myself, given the situation unfolding with the team.