Female mountain climber Ms. Kimura, along with teamleader, Midori Satoh, and group
members, Miwako Heki and Kimie Kobayashi, organized the Kiryuu Women's Indo-Himalayan
Climbing Team to attempt an expedition to the Himalayas.
At 1:05 p.m. local time, August 12, 1985, they were the first women's group to reach
the top of Himalayan mountain Mentosa (6443 m). They became the fifth group to reach the
summit since the original British group in May, 1973. Ms. Kimura was the only woman to
participate in the December, 1991, prefectural expedition to the southwest wall of Sagar
Mattar (sp?) ( General leader Hikaru Hoshino, team leader Kuniaki Yagihara, 15 member
team), which unfortunately had to be abandoned due to bad weather.
Sagar Mattar is the Nepalese name for Mt. Everest's highest peak (8848m above sea
level), while the Tibetan name is Chomoranma. The southwest wall of the mountain has a
steep stone face with temperatures reaching 50 degrees below 0 and wind speeds of 60km/hr.
in winter.
A Korean team has attempted the climb three times but has yet to succeed. Ms. Kimura
collects information and photos of mountains both inside and outside the country. |
