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Jim Whittaker, the first American to summit Mount Everest, dies at 97
Jim Whittaker is interviewed for the 50th Anniversary Celebration of the First American Ascent of Mount Everest in Berkeley, Calif., Feb. 22, 2013.
Jeff Chiu/AP
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Jeff Chiu/AP
SEATTLE — The celebrated mountaineer Jim Whittaker, the first American to summit Mount Everest, has died. He was 97.
Whittaker, who also served as the first full-time employee of the outdoor retailer REI and later as its president and CEO, died Tuesday at his home in Port Townsend, Washington, according to a statement from his family.
“Whether at home, in the mountains, or at sea, he sought to share adventure, joy, and optimism with those around him,” said the statement, which was emailed by Leif Whittaker, one of his sons. “His warmth, humility, and belief in the power of nature to bring people together left an enduring legacy of care for our planet and for one another.”
Whittaker’s 1963 ascent of Everest alongside Nawang Gombu came 10 years after the pioneering climb of Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay. The feat helped spawn interest — and an industry — in mountaineering in the U.S., and it made the once-shy, rangy climber an instant celebrity. He was featured on magazine covers and in demand for public appearances.
Whittaker had been working for REI since 1955, when he was hired by the co-op’s co-founder, Lloyd Anderson. The company’s popularity surged after Whittaker’s Everest climb, and Whittaker went on to lead the business from 1971 to 1979. Its membership grew from nearly 250,000 to more than 900,000 during his tenure, REI noted in a statement Wednesday.
Robert F. Kennedy, left, stands atop Mt. Kennedy after placing a black flag in memorial to his late brother, President John F. Kennedy, next to, from left, Jim Whittaker, William Allard, and George Senner, March 24, 1965, in Yukon, Canada.
Doug Wilson/AP
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Doug Wilson/AP
The co-op credited his congressional testimony and other efforts with helping to establish North Cascades National Park and the Pasayten Wilderness in Washington, as well as and Redwood National Park in California.
“Long before outdoor advocacy was commonplace, Jim gave his voice — and his leadership — to protecting the places we love, reminding us that wild places endure only if we choose to care for them,” the statement said.
Whittaker’s celebrity also brought him into the orbit of the Kennedy clan, and he became a close friend of Robert Kennedy, with whom he climbed a 14,000-foot (4,267 meters) Canadian peak. The peak was later named Mount Kennedy after the presidential contender’s murder in 1968.
Whittaker was at Kennedy’s bedside when he died and was devastated by the assassination.
Whittaker grew up in Seattle and began climbing with his twin brother Lou Whittaker in the 1940s with the Boy Scouts. At 16, they summited 7,965-foot (2,428-meter) Mount Olympus, the highest peak in the Olympic Mountains west of Seattle, Jim Whittaker recounted in his memoir, “A Life on the Edge.” When they reached the town of Port Angeles on their way home, they found cars honking and people celebrating: World War II had ended.
Jim Whittaker once reflected that the beauty and danger of his sport sharpened the senses: “When you live on the edge, you can see a little farther,” he once reflected.
His achievements on the remote, snowy slopes of Mount Everest and nearby K2, the world’s second-tallest peak, assured him a niche in the record books. He was shocked when Lou decided to skip the 1963 Everest expedition in favor of opening a sporting goods store in Tacoma.
But Lou Whittaker wrote in his own book, “Lou Whittaker: Memoirs of a Mountain Guide,” that he still got to share in some of his twin’s glory by filling in when Jim got tired of attending parades or other events in his honor.
“Only our families and closest friends ever knew the difference,” he wrote.
Lou Whittaker died in 2024 at age 95.
Lou Whittaker, left, and his brother Jim Whittaker, right, pose for a portrait at Jim’s house, in 1980, in Seattle.
Ann E. Yow/AP/The Seattle Times
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Ann E. Yow/AP/The Seattle Times
Jim Whittaker led many additional climbs, including the 1990 Mount Everest International Peace Climb, which brought together climbers from the U.S., the Soviet Union and China “to demonstrate what could be accomplished through cooperation and goodwill,” the family statement said.
“Jim was a lifelong advocate for peace and believed deeply in the ability of shared challenges in the natural world to unite people across borders and ideologies,” it said.
Whittaker himself said one of his proudest moments came in 1981, when he led 10 handicapped climbers up 14,410-foot Mount Rainier. For them, he said later, “that was Mount Everest.”
Whittaker scaled Mount Rainier more than 100 times but did not take its familiar flanks for granted. The caprices of the weather, even on a comparatively modest mountain, “can turn a good climber into a beginner” in a matter of hours, he once noted.
Former Washington Gov. Jay Inslee called Whittaker’s legacy “just as impressive, and just as lasting, as Mount Rainier itself.”
“He pulled many a climber up the peak,” Inslee wrote in a social media post Wednesday. “He did the same for all our spirits. He still does.”
After years of risk on the world’s most dizzying pinnacles, Whittaker said in a 1980 interview that he hoped to “die in my sleep with the television on.”
He is survived by his wife of 52 years, Dianne Roberts; sons Bob, Joss and Leif Whittaker; three grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.
new video loaded: Police Fatally Shoot Man After Stabbings at Grand Central Subway Station
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Police Fatally Shoot Man After Stabbings at Grand Central Subway Station
A man with a large knife was shot by police after stabbing three people at Grand Central subway station on Saturday.
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Two officers, detectives assigned to transit overtime posts, were flagged down by a civilian reporting that a man armed with a knife had just stabbed multiple people on the subway platform. The individual was armed with a large knife, described as a machete, and was behaving erratically, repeatedly stating that he was Lucifer. He then advanced toward the officers with the knife extended. One officer discharged his firearm, striking the perpetrator twice. The individual was transported to Bellevue Hospital and he was pronounced deceased.
By Cynthia Silva
April 11, 2026
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office in New York has launched an investigation into a sexual assault allegation against Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., NBC News confirmed Saturday.
Multiple women in the last two days have come forward alleging that Swalwell sexually assaulted or harassed them while serving in Congress, including one who alleged he assaulted her in New York. Swalwell has denied the allegations.
A spokesperson for the district attorney’s office urged “survivors and anyone with knowledge of these allegations to contact our Special Victims Division at 212-335-9373. Our specially trained prosecutors, investigators, and counselors are well-equipped to help you in a trauma-informed, survivor-centered manner.”
On Friday, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that one woman said she had sexual encounters with the congressman when he was her boss and alleged that he twice sexually assaulted her when she was too intoxicated to consent. One of those incidents, the woman alleged, took place in New York in 2024.
And later Friday, CNN reported on sexual misconduct allegations against Swalwell from three additional women, including one who said he kissed her without her consent in public and two others who said the congressman sent them unsolicited photos or videos of his penis.
NBC News has not independently corroborated their stories.
CNN was the first to report of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office investigation.
Representatives for Swalwell’s office and campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Swalwell on Friday denied the allegations in a video posted to X, telling viewers: “These allegations of sexual assault are flat false. They’re absolutely false. They did not happen. They have never happened, and I will fight them with everything that I have.”
The CNN and San Francisco Chronicle stories were reported just weeks before California voters are set to begin voting in the state’s primary for governor, where Swalwell has been a leading candidate in a crowded field of Democrats, including former Rep. Katie Porter, businessman Tom Steyer and former U.S. Health Secretary Xavier Becerra.
On Friday and Saturday, multiple high-profile figures and groups rescinded their previous endorsements of Swalwell, including the California Federation of Labor Unions and the California chapter of the Service Employees International Union.
Democratic leaders in the House, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., Democratic Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass., and Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., on Friday called the allegations against Swalwell “disturbing” and urged him to “immediately end his campaign to be California’s next Governor.”
On Saturday, two Republican congresswomen vowed to seek punishment against against Swalwell in the wake of the sexual assault allegations.
Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., said in a post on X that she plans to force a floor vote this week on a resolution to censure Swalwell, which would require a simple majority to succeed.
And Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., said in a post on X that she plans to introduce a resolution to expel Swalwell from Congress. That resolution would have a higher threshold for passage, with two-thirds of the chamber needing to vote in favor.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Adam Edelman contributed.
After a nearly 10-day journey that took the Artemis II astronauts around the moon, in front of an eclipse and farther away from Earth than any humans before them, the crew of four have made a dramatic return home.
The Artemis II astronauts share a group hug aboard the Orion capsule.
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NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen were ensconced in the Orion space capsule when they dropped into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego at 8:07 p.m. Friday. The USS John P. Murtha is stationed near the splashdown zone to help recover the crew.
To get back to Earth, the space capsule had to withstand predicted temperatures of about 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit and slow down from nearly 25,000 miles per hour — or more than 30 times the speed of sound — to a gentle 19 mph or so before splashdown.
The roughly 13-minute journey from the top of the atmosphere to the surface is like “riding a fireball through the atmosphere,” NASA astronaut and Artemis II crew member Victor Glover said before the maneuver.
But, he said, it’s also a necessary one.
“We have to get back,” Glover said. “There’s so much data that you’ve seen already, but all the good stuff is coming back with us.”
The crew of four, who looped around the far side of the moon on Monday April 6, took photos and made observations as they passed over the lunar surface. The crew is set to bring that data and more back to the team on the ground.
Nell Greenfieldboyce and Central Florida Public Media’s Brendan Byrne contributed to this report.
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