Jim Whittaker, Washington native and first American to climb Everest, dies at 97

Jim Whittaker, the famous Washington mountaineer who was the first American to summit Mount Everest and later became the CEO of outdoor retailer REI, died Tuesday at his home in Port Townsend, Washington. He was 97.

His death was confirmed by his son Bobby, of Spokane.

Whittaker reached the top of Everest on May 1, 1963, alongside climbing partner Nawang Gombu. They were the 10th and 11th climbers to reach the summit, an achievement that came 10 years after Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first. The trip earned him the National Geographic Society’s top honor, the Hubbard Medal.

In 1978, he led the first American ascent of K2, the world’s second-tallest mountain. Among the climbers on that expedition was Spokane’s John Roskelley.

Roskelley said the talk among climbers in the years before he met Whittaker was always about how big and strong the 6-foot-5 climber was. On the trip to K2, Roskelley saw it firsthand as he watched Whittaker carry his own loads beyond 20,000 feet of elevation.

“There was nothing weak about Jim,” said Roskelley, one of four climbers to reach the summit on that trip. “He was big, and he was determined, and it was impressive to watch.”

Whittaker was the first full-time employee at REI, the Seattle-based cooperative that started small and now is one of the country’s most prominent outdoor retailers.

Whittaker became close friends with Robert F. Kennedy after leading him on a trip up Mount Kennedy in the Yukon in 1965, which had been named for President John F. Kennedy. He worked on the younger Kennedy brother’s 1968 presidential campaign, the New York Times reported, and was in the hospital room when Robert F. Kennedy died, then served as a pallbearer at his funeral.

In 2015, Bobby Whittaker, who was named after the assassinated senator, his half-brother Leif and Christopher Kennedy, one of Robert F. Kennedy’s sons, returned to the Yukon to climb the peak. The trip is covered in the 2019 film “Return to Mount Kennedy.”

Bobby said he admired his father’s political and conservation advocacy, and that he thinks that part of his father’s life expanded significantly because of his friendship with the late senator.

“To me, that’s the beautiful part,” Bobby Whittaker said. “It’s not the prowess or the physical ability.”

Jim Whittaker was born in Seattle on Feb. 10, 1929, just before his twin brother, Lou. The pair began climbing mountains young, starting at age 12 with the Boy Scouts and later with the Mountaineers. The pair first climbed Mount Rainier when they were 16 and were soon guiding climbers there.

Both were drafted into the Army for the Korean War, according to a tribute posted to the Mountaineers website. They were eventually sent to Camp Hale in Colorado to train the Army’s 10th Mountain Division for cold weather and alpine conditions.

Jim Whittaker’s career at REI began in 1955, after the business’ co-founder, Lloyd Anderson, called him looking for help, according to a blog post on the company’s website. The downtown Seattle co-op was then mainly an importer of climbing gear with about 600 members, but Anderson was struggling to keep up with demand.

Jim Whittaker stayed at REI for a quarter-century and became its CEO in the 1970s.

The job allowed him to spend plenty of time climbing. He and his brother were both contacted about joining the 1963 Everest expedition, but only Jim Whittaker accepted.

In 2013, he told the Seattle Times that the morning he reached the summit, he woke up to howling winds. A storm was on its way, and anyone trying to reach the summit was going to have to push through it.

Still, he and Gombu wanted to try. He told the newspaper that “you always start up, because you can always turn around.”

Once news of the climb got around in the mountaineering community, Jim Whittaker’s status as a legend was cemented.

“He was quite the inspiration for a lot of people,” said Chris Kopczynski, a Spokane climber who climbed with Lou Whittaker on Mount Rainier.

His trip to Mount Kennedy came just two years after Everest. The mountain hadn’t been climbed before. In “Return to Mount Kennedy,” Jim Whittaker describes seeing the summit come into view and telling Robert F. Kennedy, who had no mountaineering experience before the trip, to go first.

“He was the first human being to stand on the peak named after his brother,” Jim Whittaker said. “I mean, that’s one where the tears freeze on the parka. We were bawling. That was really emotional.”

Ten years after that, he organized an expedition to K2 another Himalayan peak and the second-tallest mountain in the world. That attempt failed, but he secured a permit shortly afterward to try again in 1978.

Roskelley, who was then a rising mountaineering star, wasn’t on the initial trip to K2 but wrangled an invite to the second attempt. He said Jim Whittaker was well-organized and all business, and that he had the skills to raise the money necessary to fund the trip.

“He was always businesslike, and he knew how to twist your arm if you needed to be a sponsor or donate to the trip,” Roskelley said. “He was really good at that, and I think it benefited American climbing quite a bit.”

Once they were actually on the climb, it was Jim Whittaker’s job to keep everyone on the expedition moving forward. Not everyone makes the summit on major expeditions like that one, and Jim Whittaker did not see the top of K2 on that trip. But four of the climbers did, including Roskelley, who credited Jim Whittaker with making sure that happened.

“He was dedicated and wanting us to keep our nose to the grindstone,” he said.

In 1990, Whittaker organized the Mount Everest International Peace climb, which brought together climbers from the U.S., China and the Soviet Union. They climbed the mountain together and removed more than two tons of trash from the mountain, according to the Mountaineers.

Aside from climbing, Jim Whittaker was a passionate and capable sailor. Twice, he competed in the 2,400-mile Victoria-to-Maui International Yacht Race, and he took his family on a four-year sailing journey to Australia and back home to Port Townsend.

In addition to his son Bobby, Jim Whittaker is survived by his sons Leif and Joss, and their mother Dianne Roberts. Lou Whittaker died in 2024. Two other sons from his first marriage, Scott and Carl, have also died.