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  "path": "/lifestyle/2026/04/10/jim-whittaker-first-american-to-summit-everest-dies-at-97/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-04-10T16:10:08.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.deseret.com",
  "tags": [
    "news obituary",
    "statement",
    "Return to Mount Kennedy",
    "Associated Press",
    "These climbers’ plan to scale Everest in a week is getting blowback",
    "Middle School Vice Principal trekked to Everest Base Camp for spring break",
    "AP",
    "Nepalese teenager becomes youngest person to conquer the world’s 14 tallest peaks",
    "Deseret News archives: Summit of Mount Everest accomplished in 1953"
  ],
  "textContent": "Jim Whittaker, who made history in 1963 by becoming the first American to summit Mount Everest, died this week at 97 years old.\n\nA news obituary recounts that upon first seeing the 29,028-foot peak, he expressed a desire to “become its friend.”\n\nA Washington native, Whittaker died Tuesday in Port Townsend, his family announced.\n\nSir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay famously achieved the first successful ascent a decade prior, in 1953.\n\nWhittaker braved 60 mph winds and temperatures lower than 30 degrees below zero during his ascent.\n\nAccording to the obituary, the climb to the summit took roughly seven hours from the final high-altitude camp. To make matters worse, the team ran out of bottled oxygen during the ascent.\n\n“It wasn’t sublime or a moment of clarity. I just suddenly thought, we’ve got to get down,” he shared years later.\n\nHere’s five interesting nuggets about the famous mountaineer, Jim Whittaker, affectionately known as “Big Jim” by the climbing community.\n\n### He was friends with the Kennedy family\n\nIn May 1963, President John F. Kennedy issued a statement to congratulate the climbers upon learning of their remarkable achievement.\n\nLater that summer, the president presented Whittaker and his crew with Hubbard medals, the highest honor given by the National Geographic Society for exploration and discovery.\n\nJust two years later, after Kennedy was assassinated, Whittaker summited a 13,000-foot mountain in Canada that had been renamed Mount Kennedy with the president’s brother, Robert.\n\nWhen they neared the top, Whittaker told “Bobby” to go first so he could be the first person to stand on the peak named after his brother.\n\n“That’s one where the tears freeze on the parka. We were bawling. That was really emotional,” Whittaker said in the 2019 film “Return to Mount Kennedy.”\n\nAfter this bonding experience, the Whittaker and Kennedy families remained close and frequently vacationed together.\n\nWhen Kennedy was killed the same way that his brother was, Whittaker was at his side, both in the hospital and as a pallbearer at his funeral.\n\n### He had a twin brother\n\nJim Whittaker had a twin brother named Lou, who died in 2024.\n\nThe two grew up participating in Boy Scouts and climbing together.\n\nAccording to The Associated Press, as young 16-year-olds, they summited Mount Olympus together, the highest peak in the Olympic Mountains west of Seattle.\n\nLou skipped the trip to Everest, but he didn’t skip the fame.\n\nHe looked so much like Jim that he often played the part at parades and parties, happily taking credit for a mountain he never climbed.\n\n“Only our families and closest friends ever knew the difference,” Lou wrote in his book.\n\n### He was the first full-time employee at REI\n\nIn 1955, Whittaker became the first full-time employee of Recreational Equipment Inc. He later became president and CEO.\n\nThe company greatly benefited from his Everest expedition.\n\nIn eight years with the company, he turned REI into a $46 million enterprise. Its membership grew from nearly 250,000 to more than 900,000 during his tenure, according to the company.\n\nIt’s now one of the most prominent outdoor retailers in the country.\n\nThese climbers’ plan to scale Everest in a week is getting blowback\n\nMiddle School Vice Principal trekked to Everest Base Camp for spring break\n\n### He also climbed the world’s second-tallest mountain\n\nHis first attempt in 1975, which his twin Lou was a part of, was unsuccessful, but a few years later, Whittaker secured a permit to try again.\n\nIn 1978, he led the first American ascent of K2, the second-tallest mountain in the world, located on the border of Pakistan and China.\n\nIt’s widely regarded as more technically challenging, dangerous and demanding than Everest.\n\nFellow climbers in the group were impressed by Whittaker’s strength, determination and comprehensive trip planning.\n\nShortly after K2, he retired from REI.\n\n### 2 more historic climbs\n\nIn 1981, he led 10 handicapped climbers up Mount Rainier.\n\nWhittaker called it one of his proudest moments, according to The Associated Press.\n\nHe hiked Rainier more than 100 times throughout his life and dozens of times with his twin brother, Lou.\n\nFormer Washington Gov. Jay Inslee called Whittaker’s legacy just as impressive as Mount Rainier itself, per AP.\n\nNepalese teenager becomes youngest person to conquer the world’s 14 tallest peaks\n\nDeseret News archives: Summit of Mount Everest accomplished in 1953\n\nIn 1990, Whittaker returned to Everest for the Earth Day 20 International Peace Climb.\n\nWhittaker did not attempt to summit, but displayed masterful leadership across three different languages throughout the trip.\n\nWhittaker and his wife, Dianne Roberts, organized the effort with China and the Soviet Union to promote global friendship and unity.\n\nIn addition to summiting the tallest mountain in the world, the group collected and removed over two tons of trash from Everest.\n\n“There is something about Jim that causes people to want to do things for him,” his wife said. “If he even suggests that he wants to do something, people more or less line up to make it happen.”",
  "title": "Jim Whittaker, first American to summit Everest, dies at 97"
}