Alpinist Phentog, the first Chinese woman to ascend to the peak of Mount Qomolangma (known in the West as Mount Everest), died of complications from diabetes in a local hospital in Wuxi, Jiangsu province, on Monday.

Phentog, born in 1939 in Gyamda county in the Tibet autonomous region, reached the summit of Qomolangma (8,848 meters above sea level) from the north slope at 2:30 pm on May 27, 1975, accompanied by eight men, becoming the first woman in the world to top the summit via the challenging north route.

Brought up in a serf family, Phentog started her mountaineering career in January 1959 after she was picked by the China Female Mountaineering Expedition because of her outstanding physical condition while working at Lhasa's Qiyi Farm.