Sports
Jim Whittaker, first American climber to scale Mount Everest, has died
For 20 minutes of his life, Jim Whittaker was on top of the world.
He was the first American to summit Mt. Everest, reaching the highest point on Earth on May 1, 1963, with Sherpa Nawang Gombu.
“We were standing in the jet stream, on the edge of space,” Whittaker wrote in his 1999 memoir, “A Life on the Edge.”
He returned home a hero, with his picture on the cover of Life magazine, a White House fete and unexpected celebrity. And though life off the mountain didn’t always go smoothly, he disdained regret.
“If you stick your neck out, whether it’s by climbing mountains or speaking up for something you believe in, your odds of winning are at least fifty-fifty,” he wrote. “On the other hand, if you never stick your neck out, your odds of losing are pretty close to 100%.”
An adventurer until the end, Whittaker died Tuesday at his home in Port Townsend, Wash., his son Leif confirmed to the New York Times. Whittaker was 97. .
On March 24, 1965, Robert F. Kennedy, left, stands atop Mt. Kennedy in Canada after placing a black flag in memorial to his late brother, President John F. Kennedy. With him were Jim Whittaker; William Allard, a National Geographic Society photographer; and George Senner, a ranger.
(Doug Wilson / Associated Press)
He was 34 when he scaled Everest, a feat that shaped much of the rest of his life. His Washington state license plate read 29028, the generally accepted height of Everest when he climbed it. (GPS surveys later put it at about 29,035 feet.)
He was chosen for the expedition by its leader, Swiss mountaineer Norman Dyhrenfurth, because of his experience in climbing under icy conditions, including numerous summits of Mt. Rainier near his Seattle-area home.
But Everest, first scaled in 1953 by New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Nepalese Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, was a far more formidable and dangerous beast. And even if the Dyhrenfurth expedition was successful, only a chosen few of its 19 team members would reach the top. Still, Whittaker thought his chances were good.
“I’d trained hard, put 60 pounds of bricks in my backpack,” he told National Geographic Adventure magazine in 2003. “I swam in Lake Sammamish in winter to build up to the cold we would encounter.
“I didn’t know anyone who was in better shape.”
On only the second day of the group’s climb from base camp, tragedy struck when a giant section of an icefall — a glacier formation resembling a frozen waterfall — shifted, crushing team member Jake Breitenbach.
“I had told everyone back home that Everest was not a difficult climb technically; the only problem was the lack of oxygen and the weather,” Whittaker wrote in “Life on the Edge.” “Now it had killed one of us, and we’d only just begun.”
Because the only way to get back to base camp was via that icefall, Whittaker chose to stay above it on the mountain for five steady weeks as more camps were established up Everest. He lost 25 pounds and a considerable amount of strength due to the thin air.
Still, he was in better condition than many of the other climbers, and Dyhrenfurth chose him for the final assault. He and Gombu left the last camp in the middle of a windstorm, with a scant supply of oxygen.
How hard was it to breathe? “Put a pillow on your face, run around the block, and try and suck oxygen through that pillow,” he said. It was so cold, one of his eyeballs froze, making it unusable.
Reaching the summit after several hours, they stayed only long enough to take pictures and plant flags as 50-mph winds whipped around them.
“When you are up there, you are not ecstatic, you are not afraid,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 2013. “You’re really not anything. But in the back of your mind, you know one thing: You gotta get off. Half of the climb is getting up, the other half is getting down.”
James Whittaker was born on Feb. 10, 1929, in Seattle, about 10 minutes before the birth of Louie, his twin brother. As the boys grew up, they took to roughhousing around the house, much to the chagrin of their mother.
“I believe that command to ‘Go outside and play’ is what started Louie and me on the path we have taken ever since,” Whittaker wrote.
He was active in Boy Scouts and as a teenager joined a mountaineering club that sponsored climbs on the nearby Olympic and Cascade ranges. He tested himself on increasingly higher peaks, relishing moments such as breaking through cloud layers.
“I think nature is a great teacher,” he told the Seattle Times in 2013. “Being in nature that way is a good way to find out who the hell you are.”
After finishing West Seattle High School, Whittaker went on to Seattle University, graduating in 1952. He was promptly drafted into the Army, but his mountaineering experience led him to be assigned to the Mountain and Cold Weather Training Command in Colorado instead of combat duty in Korea.
In 1955, he became the first full-time employee of the Recreational Equipment Cooperative (later called REI) when it was housed in a 20-by-30-foot space above a Seattle restaurant. In his first year, he expanded the co-op’s offerings into ski equipment and introduced new concepts — such as opening on Saturday mornings so customers could pick up equipment for weekend trips — that boosted sales.
Whittaker, pictured on April 12, 1975, in Seattle, shows some of the gear he would be taking for an expedition to climb K2 on the China-Pakistan border.
(Associated Press)
Because of his connection to the co-op, he was appointed equipment coordinator of the Everest climb, and REI agreed to keep him on the payroll during the expedition.
In July 1963, he and other members of the Everest team, including Gombu, were presented the Hubbard Medal of the National Geographic Society — which partially sponsored the expedition — by President Kennedy, four months before the president was assassinated.
Two years later, Whittaker led a climb up Mt. Kennedy, a nearly 14,000-foot Canadian peak named for JFK, with Sen. Robert F. Kennedy in the climbing party. The two men forged a close friendship that extended to the wider Kennedy clan. In subsequent years, Whittaker went on ski vacations with the Kennedys, was a guest at the family compound in Hyannis Port, Mass., and hosted gatherings in Seattle that included mountain climbing.
Whittaker organized Robert Kennedy’s 1968 presidential campaign efforts in the Pacific Northwest and spoke to him by phone only minutes before the candidate was fatally shot in Los Angeles. Whittaker caught a flight to L.A. and was at the senator’s hospital bedside when he died and then served as a pallbearer at the funeral.
In mountaineering, Whittaker was closely involved in more high-profile ventures. He led a 1975 expedition up the world’s second-highest mountain, K2, that failed to reach the top. His return expedition in 1978 was successful, though he chose not to go to the summit himself.
That same year, he decided to quit REI, partly because of friction with the co-op’s board. He had been president and chief executive since 1971, and when he left, the co-op was a $46-million business with more than 700 employees.
Whittaker throws the ceremonial first pitch before a baseball game between the Mariners and the Angels in 2013.
(Elaine Thompson / Associated Press)
Income from an endorsement agreement helped keep him financially sound, but an investment in a new outdoor gear company proved to be a disaster. The financial irregularities of a partner, who was convicted of felony bank fraud, doomed the venture, and Whittaker was left holding the financial bag.
He was nearly wiped out but got back on his financial footing when a venture capitalist asked him in 1986 to be chairman of the board, with stock options, of a new company called Magellan. It was a pioneer in GPS consumer electronics and holds numerous patents in the field.
Appropriately, Whittaker called one of the chapters midway through his book “Roller Coaster.” But he finished it with “Life Well Lived.”
“If you aren’t living on the edge,” he wrote, “you’re taking up too much space.”
Whittaker is survived by his wife, Dianne Roberts, and children Bobby, Joss and Leif.
Colker is a former Times staff writer.
It’s midseason in high school baseball, so let’s look at players who are producing results at a high level. Forget about rankings, radar guns or who has scholarship offers. These are the players making an impact.
No one has been better than sophomore pitcher Tyler George of Santa Margarita. With a 7-0 record, 0.85 ERA and just two walks in 41 1/3 innings, the 6-foot-5, 190-pound 16-year-old has shown what a top pitcher is supposed to look like.
Few saw this coming — except for his freshman coach last season, Mike Hiserman, who said, “He was the most fundamentally sound all-around freshman baseball player I’ve ever coached. Was good at everything yet still immensely coachable. You tell him something once and he does it.”
George said he has focused on mixing up his pitches — fastball, curveball, slider, changeup.
“Just not overthrowing the ball, not throwing as hard as I can but hitting the spots and having a feel for my off-speed pitches,” he said.
He threw all nine innings during a 1-0 win over Mater Dei that was full of drama.
“It was a lot of fun,” he said. “The adrenaline was running. It was cool.”
His brother, Hayden, is a freshman pitcher at UCLA, and he said Bruins coach John Savage has been asking Hayden about him, which is a good sign when he becomes available to talk to recruiters in the summer.
Royal pitcher Dustin Dunwoody is 7-0 with an 0.18 ERA.
(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)
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Dustin Dunwoody, Royal: Armed with an overpowering fastball, Dunwoody is 7-0, has an 0.18 ERA with 74 strikeouts in 39 1/3 innings.
Catcher Brady Murrietta of Orange Lutheran makes the tag at home plate against St. John Bosco.
(Nick Koza)
- Brady Murrietta, Orange Lutheran: The senior catcher keeps throwing out baserunners trying to challenge him. He’s also terrific on throws to the plate, picking up the hop and making the tag. And don’t forget his clutch hitting. He leads the team in RBIs with 12.
- Troy Randall, Corona Santiago: The junior third baseman is hitting .460 with 29 hits and also has given up just two hits in 12 innings in a relief pitching role.
- Jake Kim, Harvard-Westlake: The junior has displayed power and consistency, making him one of the toughest outs in the Wolverines’ lineup. He has 22 hits, a .500 batting average and four home runs.
- Malakye Matsumoto, Sherman Oaks Notre Dame: With 22 hits and 17 RBIs, the senior third baseman has been delivering for 14-3 Notre Dame.
- Tate Belfanti, Cypress: The junior left-hander has 53 strikeouts in 28 innings while going 5-0.
- Jake Ange, Thousand Oaks: The junior was a starter for the basketball team and has come out and hit seven home runs, including a game in which he hit two grand slams.
- Dylan Seward, Norco: The junior shortstop has been producing since he was a starter as a freshman. He has 26 hits, 16 RBIs and makes the plays when the ball is hit in his direction.
- James Tronstein, Harvard-Westlake: The senior shortstop has 26 hits, including four home runs, as the Wolverines’ leadoff hitter.
- Gary Morse, Orange Lutheran: The 6-8 pitcher is 3-1 with a 1.40 ERA and 54 strikeouts in 30 innings for the No. 1 team in Southern California.
- Caleb Trugman, Ayala: The two-way player has 23 hits and is 6-0 pitchers and an 0.76 ERA.
- Xavier Cadena, El Dorado: The outfielder has hit five home runs, driven in 19 runs and is batting .373.
- Carson Sheffer, Oaks Christian: The senior catcher continues to be stellar behind the plate while also contributing 22 hits, including seven doubles.
- Landon Hovermale, Norco: A model of consistency, the left-handed Hovermale is 6-0 with an 0.95 ERA and has walked just four batters in 36 2/3 innings.
- Jackson Sellz, El Camino Real: The junior keeps throwing complete games for the defending City Section champions. He’s 6-0 with a 1.20 ERA and five complete games.
- Jayden Rojas, Bell: The senior third baseman is batting .466 with 27 hits for 17-2 Bell. As a pitcher, he’s 4-0 with a 1.04 ERA.
- Brody Thompson, Bishop Alemany: Batting .404 with five home runs and five doubles, the senior catcher has also thrown out nine of 14 baserunners attempting to steal in helping the Warriors become a Mission League title contender.
Sports
Rory McIlroy’s monstrous lead disappears, surprise contender surges as Masters comes down to final day
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In case you thought the Masters was over after Rory McIlroy’s electrifying second round, here’s your reminder that nothing gets started in Augusta until the back nine on Sunday.
And those final nine holes are sure to be exciting after Saturday’s third-round action that saw McIlroy’s six-shot lead, the largest ever through 36 holes, completely evaporate.
New York native Cameron Young and the reigning champion McIlroy will be paired together as the final grouping of the 90th playing of the Masters, with both golfers at 11 under.
Rory McIlroy and Cameron Young are tied for the Masters lead going into Sunday. (Katie Goodale/Imagn Images, Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)
McIlroy started his day at 12 under, but a bogey on the first combined with three birdies by Patrick Reed saw his lead shrink rapidly. When McIlroy birdied the third, and Reed bogeyed No. 4, McIlroy’s lead was back to a comfortable four. Reed eventually fell down the leaderboard, but Young shot up it.
Young, who was 4 over after his first round, began the day eight shots back of McIlroy, birdied the 16th to tie McIlroy, just seconds before McIlroy bogeyed 12 to fall to second place. He shot a 7-under 65 to jump to the top of the leaderboard, while McIlroy went 1 over with a 73. Young birdied eight holes to go along with a bogey on the par-5 15th after going water.
But McIlroy struggled on the back nine, going in the water on 11 for a double bogey, while also bogeying 12 and 18.
Rory McIlroy reacts after a putt on the 18th green during the third round of the Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia, on April 11, 2026. (Michael Madrid/Imagn Images)
HOW THE 3,267TH-RANKED AMATEUR GOLFER, A REAL ESTATE AGENT, GOT TO PLAY ALONGSIDE LEGENDS AT THE MASTERS
This tournament, though, now stretches far beyond the leaders, as there are 20 players within seven strokes, and 14 within six. McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood were the only golfers inside the top 20 entering Saturday to score over par in the third round, making Saturday’s moving day quite the preview for an electric Sunday.
Sam Burns is alone at 10 under in solo third, while Shane Lowry, who benefited from a hole-in-one, is two back. Jason Day and Justin Rose are at 8 under, with Scottie Scheffler and Haotong Li at 7 under (Scheffler, too, shot a 65 after starting Saturday even for the tournament).
Other notables in the mix include Patrick Cantlay, Russell Henley, and Reed at 6 under, Collin Morikawa at 5 under, and Xander Schauffele and Brooks Koepka at 4 under.
Masters champion Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland greets Cameron Young of the United States on the No. 18 green during the first round of the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club on April 9, 2026. (Logan Whitton/Augusta National/Getty Images)
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After being paired together in the first two rounds, McIlroy and Young will tee off together again at 2:25 p.m. ET, as McIlroy looks to make up for lost time and become the first golfer since Tiger Woods to win back-to-back green jackets.
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There is a new “Fab Four” in the making and they are the Friars.
Servite’s 4×100 relay clocked 39.70 seconds Saturday at the Arcadia Invitational, breaking the state record it set at the same meet last year.
Sophomores Jace Wells, Jorden Wells and Kamil Pelovello and junior Benjamin Harris left runner-up El Cerrito (40.57) and third-place Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks (41.02) far behind and later claimed their best is yet to come.
“We still want to drop more times in the coming weeks,” said Harris, who joined Jaelen hunter, Robert Gardener and Jorden Wells to run the event in 40 flat last year while also setting the meet record in the 4×200. “We work on passing the baton once a week and we’ll go back to the drawing board to make it even better. The most important thing is we got the stick around safely and finished the race healthy.”
“We have great chemistry — we all get along with each other,” added Pelovello, who handled the third leg Saturday for the defending state champions. “We’ll go back to the lab to see if we can do even better but what more can you ask for?”
After an hour’s rest, Harris had enough energy to take first in the 100-meter dash in 10.32 seconds — one hundredth of a second faster than his runner-up time last year.
Later, Pelovello (21.14), Jorden Wells (21.14) and Jace Wells (21.25) swept the top three spots in the 200 meters. The Friars pulled out of the 4×400 relay, but by then they had established themselves as the team to beat in the Southern Section.
Rosary’s Maliyah Collins (left) breaks the tape ahead of Calabasas’ Marley Scoggins in the girls’ 4×100 relay.
(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)
So too did Fullerton Rosary, Servite’s sister school, in the girls’ 4×100 relay. Royals speedsters Tra’via Flournoy, Justine Wilson, junior Pfeiffer Lee and Maliyah Collins won in 44.23, breaking Long Beach Poly’s 22-year-old state record of 44.50.
“I’m in disbelief but I knew we ran something real fast,” said Collins, a sophomore who held off Marley Scoggins of Calabasas on the anchor leg. “Shout-out to Calabasas for a great race, but this is our spotlight. This is a proud moment for us and the boys.”
Rosary ran 45.57 last spring — the fourth fastest time in meet history — anchored by Wilson. On Saturday, the Royals posted the third-fastest national high school time ever.
Savoring the day’s successes was former UCLA All-American sprinter Brandon Thomas, who coaches both Servite and Rosary.
The opening relays set the stage for the most decorated runner of the meet, senior Quincy Wilson, who traveled across the country to put his talent on display.
Every eye in the stadium was fixed on Wilson as he knelt in the starting blocks awaiting the start of the 400 meters. When the gun sounded he accelerated from Lane 5 as if shot out of a cannon, picked up speed on every stride and circled the oval in 45.48 seconds — breaking the meet record as spectators watched in awe.
Olympian Quincy Wilson (center) cruises to victory in the 400-meter dash in a meet record 45.48 seconds.
(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)
The senior from Bullis School in Maryland gained worldwide fame as a 16-year-old in 2024 when he became the youngest male U.S. Olympic track athlete, helping the 4×400 relay team qualify for the finals in Paris.
The crowd roared when Wilson got introduced for the one-lapper, then the star closed the show by anchoring the Bulldogs’ 4×400 relay, which won in 3:09.14, the second-fastest all-time at Arcadia.
Wilson broke his own national indoor 400 record with a 45.37 effort at the New Balance Nationals last month in Boston. Now 18, he has won four straight national indoor titles. As he proved Saturday, he is not too shabby outdoors, either.
While Wilson drew the most attention, the 58th edition of the nation’s premier high school track and field meet also spotlighted many of the Southland’s finest athletes.
San Jacinto Valley Academy 10th-grader Kaahliyah Lacy, a distant cousin of Florence Griffith-Joyner, won the Invitational girls 300 hurdles in 40.81 while Arkansas-bound senior Braelyn Combe of Corona Santiago ran 2:05.12 to take second in the girls 800 meters, edged at the finish by Union Catholic’s Paige Sheppard.
Jurupa Valley senior AB Hernandez doubled in the girls’ triple jump (42-6) and long jump (20-3) and placed third in the high jump at 5-8. Julia Teven of Brea Olinda won with a height of 5-10.
Aliso Niguel senior Jaslene Massey, an Oregon commit who won the shot put at the Nike Indoor Nationals with a throw of 54-2.75 inches (sixth-best in U.S. high school history) and posted a national-leading discus mark of 188-7 at the Asics Irvine Invitational, won the shot put Saturday with a mark of 53-2 and also took first in the discus (182-2).
Sherman Oaks Notre Dame senior Josh Harel, the reigning state high jump champion, cleared 6-9 to win the event Saturday.
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