JAPAN At just 150 meters tall Junko Tabei is a small woman but she is a big hero In 1975 she became the first woman to reach the top of Mount Everest It was almost impossible There was an avalanche and Tabei sometimes had to climb on her hands and knees to reach her goal Now she is over 60 years old but Tabei is still climbing three or four mountains a year
But the world s mountains are in serious trouble she says And the reason More and more climbers are leaving trash bottles cans and old shoes all over the mountains Tabei a leader in conservation is trying to change that As the head of a Japanese conservation program she teaches young people all over Asia to care for their mountains She takes groups of young people into the mountains to get rid of the trash and plant trees Recently students from Korea Japan and Taiwan climbed Snow Mountain in Taiwan with her
Mountains teach me a lot of things Tabei says They teach me how small my own problems are
