First Muslim Women Summit Mount Everest

Consider your favorite “Firsts”...

...Imagine being among the first Muslim women to summit Mount Everest

...Imagine being Farkhondeh Sadegh, a graphic designer, and Laleh Keshavarz, a dentist (sorry - no photos of the climbers) the two Iranian women who earned this title Monday morning. They reached the summit, together with six Iranian men, all of whom were among a 21-member Iranian team that included seven women. Their success marked the end of a 10-week expedition where they survived bad weather and an avalanche that injured some of the team members.

Could you image climbing this?!

Another first belongs to Mona Mulepati, who led a three-member team to become the first non-Sherpa woman from Nepal to reach the top of the world. She is Newar, Kathmandu's main ethnic group. This is apparently a big deal because, while Sherpa men have gotten used to the idea of assisting Sherpa women in scaling Mount Everest, they're not exactly interested in more local competition. So I’ve heard.

A couple of Mount Everest tidbits

Junko Tabai of Japan was the first woman to scale Everest...30 years ago.

Fewer than 100 women in the world have climbed Everest.

Mount Everest is actually called Sagarmatha, which means “goddess of the sky”