Legendary mountaineer Jim Whittaker, the first American to summit Mount Everest, dies at 97

SEATTLE — Famed mountaineer Jim Whitaker, the first American to summit Mount Everest, has died. He was 97 years old.

Whitaker, who also served as the retailer REI’s first full-time employee and then as its president and CEO, died Tuesday at his home in Port Townsend, Wash., according to a statement from his family.

“Whether at home, in the mountains or at sea, he sought to share adventure, joy and optimism with those around him,” said the statement emailed by Leif Whitaker, one of his sons. “His warmth, humility, and belief in nature’s power to bring people together left a lasting legacy of care for our planet and each other.”

Whittaker’s 1963 ascent of Everest with Nawang Gombo came 10 years after the pioneering ascents of Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay. The feat helped spark interest — and an industry — in mountaineering in the United States, and made the once shy and courageous climber an instant celebrity. He has appeared on magazine covers and in demand for public appearances.

Whitaker has been with REI since 1955, when he was hired by the co-op’s co-founder, Lloyd Anderson. The company’s popularity soared after Whitaker climbed Mount Everest, and Whitaker continued to lead the company from 1971 to 1979. Its membership rose from about 250,000 to more than 900,000 during his tenure, REI noted in a statement Wednesday.

The cooperative credited his congressional testimony and other efforts with helping to establish North Cascades National Park and the Bassetin Wilderness in Washington, as well as Redwood National Park in California.

“Long before outdoor advocacy became widespread, Jim lent his voice — and leadership — to protecting the places we love, reminding us that wild places only last if we choose to care for them,” the statement said.

Whitaker’s fame also brought him into the orbit of the Kennedy clan, and he became close friends with Robert Kennedy, with whom he climbed a 14,000-foot (4,267 m) Canadian peak. The peak was later named Mount Kennedy after the presidential candidate was killed in 1968.

Whitaker was at Kennedy’s bedside when he died and was devastated by the assassination.

Whitaker grew up in Seattle and began climbing with his twin brother, Lou Whitaker, in the 1940s with Boy Scouts. At the age of 16, they climbed 7,965 feet (2,428 m) Mount Olympus, the highest peak in the Olympic Mountains west of Seattle, as Jim Whitaker recounts in his memoir, Life on the Edge. When they arrived in Port Angeles on their way home, they found cars honking and people celebrating: World War II was over.

Jim Whitaker once said that the beauty and danger of his sport sharpen the senses: “When you live on the edge, you can see a little further.”

His feats on the remote snow-covered slopes of Mount Everest and in close proximity to K2, the world’s second highest peak, have secured him a prominent place in the record books. He was shocked when Lou decided to skip the 1963 Everest trek in favor of opening a sporting goods store in Tacoma.

But Lou Whitaker wrote in his book, “Lou Whitaker: Memoirs of a Mountain Guide,” that he still got to share in some of his twin’s glory by filling the time when Jim grew tired of attending parades or other events in his honor.

“Only our families and close friends knew the difference,” he wrote.

Lou Whitaker has died In 2024 at the age of 95.

Jim Whitaker led several additional ascents, including the 1990 International Peace Climb of Mount Everest, which brought together climbers from the United States, the Soviet Union and China “to show what can be achieved through cooperation and good faith,” the family statement said.

“Jim was a lifelong advocate for peace and believed strongly in the power of common challenges in the natural world to unite people across borders and ideologies,” the statement said.

Whitaker himself said one of his proudest moments came in 1981, when he led 10 disabled climbers up the 14,410-foot Mount Rainier. “For them, this was Mount Everest,” he later said.

Whitaker has climbed Mount Rainier more than 100 times, but he never takes its familiar aspects for granted. He once noted that the vagaries of weather, even on a relatively modest mountain, “can turn a good climber into a novice” in a matter of hours.

Former Washington Governor Jay Inslee described Whitaker’s legacy as “as impressive and enduring as Mount Rainier itself.”

“He pulled many climbers to the summit,” Inslee wrote in a social media post on Wednesday. “He did the same for all of our souls. He still does.”

After years of venturing on the world’s most dizzying heights, Whittaker said in a 1980 interview that he hoped “to die in my sleep with the television on.”

He is survived by his wife of 52 years, Diane Roberts; sons Bob, Gus and Leif Whitaker; three grandchildren; And one grandchild.