Jim Whittaker, First American to Summit Mount Everest, Dies at 97
Jim Whittaker, the celebrated mountaineer who became the first American to reach the summit of Mount Everest in 1963, died Tuesday at his home in Port Townsend, Washington. He was 97. Whittaker’s historic ascent on May 1, 1963 — a decade after Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay first scaled the world’s highest peak — turned the once-shy Seattle native into a national hero and helped spark a lasting boom in American mountaineering and outdoor adventure. Accompanied by Sherpa Nawang Gombu, Whittaker pushed through blizzard-force winds and temperatures of minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 34 Celsius) during the final push from the American Mount Everest Expedition. With oxygen supplies running low, the pair spent about 20 minutes on the summit, planting an American flag and taking photographs before descending. The achievement earned Whittaker and his teammates the National Geographic Society’s Hubbard Medal, presented by President John F. Kennedy. It also catapulted him into pub...