Jim Whittaker, the first American to reach the Mount Everest summit has died at the age of 97, according to his family. Whittaker had ascended to the highest point on Earth in 1963, and remained one of the most highly regarded mountaineers for decades. He had returned to Everest with his family when he was 83 years old.
Whittaker reached Everest just a decade after Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay made the first confirmed ascent. He had done it in less-than-ideal conditions, with strong winds and limited oxygen. He climbed alongside Sherpa guide Nawang Gombu as part of an expedition led by Norman Dyhrenfurth.
At the time, fewer than a dozen climbers had reached the summit, making the feat a major moment in global mountaineering. He returned to the United States as a national figure and was awarded the Hubbard Medal by President John F. Kennedy.
READ: Dr. Neelam Gupta, 77, physicist and researcher, dies in Bethesda (September 16, 2025)
Whittaker was also the first full-time employee and former president of outdoor company Recreational Equipment Inc (REI). He later became chief executive and president, helping transform the small co-operative into a growing outdoor retail business. By 1964, the company’s revenue had crossed $1 million, driven by the success of the ascent. Under Whittaker’s leadership in the 1960s and 1970s, REI expanded significantly, helping bring outdoor recreation into the mainstream. He remained with the company until 1979 and later served as chairman of Magellan Navigation.
Whittaker’s family said in his obituary that he lived a life “devoted to adventure, stewardship, service, and family.” Whittaker died at home, in a bed “with a sweeping view of the region he loved: the Olympic Mountains, Port Townsend Bay, and the Strait of Juan de Fuca,” Leif Whittaker, the youngest of his five sons, said in the Cascadia Daily News obituary.
Whittaker, who was born in Seattle, Washington, on 10 February 1929 began climbing mountains with his twin brother Lou Whittaker as Boy Scouts in the 1940s. The brothers summited Washington state’s 7,965-foot (2,428 meters) Mount Olympus, which is the highest peak in the Olympic Mountains west of Seattle, at age 16.
READ: Samsung co-CEO Han Jong-Hee dies at 63 (March 25, 2025)
“You learn, when you climb a difficult mountain, you leave your ego behind and learn that you’re just a little micro-speck in this life. You learn your weaknesses and have a little broader perspective,” he had previously told the BBC.
He described summiting Everest and his life beyond that in his memoir, A Life on the Edge.
Whittaker remained connected to the climbing community throughout his life, spending decades in leadership and service with The Mountaineers, an alpine club in Washington founded in 1906.
Washington Governor Bob Ferguson paid tribute to Whittaker on X, saying that he was “one of the great Washingtonians.”
“He inspired many generations of mountaineers to explore the outdoors, including me. I’m grateful for the time I spent with him over the years,” Ferguson wrote on Wednesday.