Did you know that Sophia Danenberg is the first black African and American to climb to the summit of the world's tallest mountain, Mount Everest, at 7a.m. on May 19, 2006?

Sophia Danenberg (Sophia Marie Scott), a biracial born 1972 in Okinawa, Japan,  to a Japanese mother and black father, is an American mountaineer best known as the first African American and the first black woman to climb to the summit of Mount Everest, the world's tallest mountain. 

Danenberg's father, who was stationed in Japan as a member of the United States Army, moved her family at age one to the United States. She graduated from Homewood-Flossmoor High School in 1990. Initially, she studied Applied Math and Chemistry at Harvard University, but after traveling to Thailand, she switched to an undergraduate degree in Environmental Sciences and Public Policy when she saw the possibilities of the juxtaposition of the natural environment and economy.

She graduated magna cum laude among one of the first five students to graduate from this program. Upon graduation, Danenberg was a Fulbright Fellow at Keio University in Tokyo, where she first began to rock climb. After originally planning on summitting Cho Oyu, Danenberg decided to climb Mount Everest one week before beginning the journey due to monsoon conditions. At age 34, she began the climb of Mount Everest unguided, choosing her own route, carrying her own gear, and making her own decisions. 

At 7 A.M. on May 19, 2006, Danenberg reached the top of Mount Everest. Withstanding bad weather during the night that delayed some other climbers in her party, Pa Nuru Sherpa and his brother Mingma Tshiring were the only climbers to witness the event. At the time, Danenberg was suffering from bronchitis, a stuffed nose, frostbite on her cheeks and a clogged oxygen mask. She became the first African American and the first black woman to reach the summit.

Another black woman to achieve the feat of Danenberg is a South African mountaineer, Saray N'kusi Khumalo, who is a 47-year-old e-commerce executive, reached the top of Mount Everest on Thursday, 16 May 2019 becoming one of the first black African woman to conquer the world's highest mountain. She scaled the 8,850-metre (29,035-foot) mountain after three failed attempts that were foiled by bad weather and a deadly earthquake in 2015.

Khumalo, who has conquered five mountains, including Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Aconcagua in Argentina and Mount Elbrus in Russia, uses her expeditions to raise funds for children's education and libraries in Africa.

Everest, which straddles the Nepal-China border, has been climbed by nearly 5,000 people since it was first scaled by New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa in 1953, according to a post by Everest blogger Alan Arnette.

Sources: Gulf Today | Wikipedia

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