Amazingly, everyone in Junko's group survived the avalanche. She hurt her legs and back pretty badly, but she wanted to continue the climb. Two days later, Junko was ready to walk again, and she slowly and carefully led the group up to mountain. When she was climbing, she sometimes felt terrible pain in her back. During these times of extreme pain, she crawled.
Almost two weeks later, Junko crawled on her hands and knees onto a small, flat place on the top of the mountain. She say it was the size of a tatami mat, a teaditional Japanese floor mat. This tiny piece of land was the summit of Mount Everest, and on May 16, 1975, Junko became the first women in the world to reach it