James Whittaker

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Jim Whittaker giving a lecture at the Computer History Museum in 2005

James W. Whittaker , also known as Jim Whittaker (born February 10, 1929 in Seattle , Washington ) is an American mountaineer. He was the first American to climb Mount Everest in 1963 .

Life

Jim Whittaker grew up with his twin brother Lou Whittaker in Seattle, the largest city in the state of Washington. The brothers graduated from West Seattle High School and Seattle University . They soon became interested in climbing and used the mountains of the Cascade Range with the 4,395  m high Mount Rainier to gain experience as mountaineers and mountain guides. Jim Whittaker also climbed the 6190  m high Denali in Alaska , the highest mountain in North America. Like Mount Everest, Denali is one of the Seven Summits .

In 1963 Jim Whittaker was a member of the American Mount Everest Expedition under the direction of Norman Dyhrenfurth . During the expedition a dispute arose over the route to the summit. Tom Hornbein wanted to tackle the new route proposed by Norman Dyhrenfurth over the west ridge parallel to the ascent of other expedition members over the traditional route that Edmund Hillary had already taken. Norman Dyhrenfurth initially focused on the ascent via the Hillary route. If an American succeeded in attempting the first ascent of Mount Everest on this route, then he gave Hornbein the option to try the new route as well. So Whittaker, together with Sherpa Nawang Gombu , a nephew of Tenzing Norgay , took the less attractive route to the summit. On May 1, 1963, he hoisted the United States flag on the summit. Three weeks later, on May 22, 1963, Barry Bishop and Lute Jerstad also reached the summit on the traditional route, while Tom Hornbein and Willi Unsoeld climbed Mount Everest on the new route at the same time . They crossed the summit and met their comrades on the descent route.

All members of the expedition were awarded the rare Hubbard Medal of the National Geographic Society by President John F. Kennedy .

As a result, Jim Whittaker became a confidante of Robert F. Kennedy . In 1965 Whittaker led Robert Kennedy and other politicians and mountaineers to the summit of the previously unclimbed Mount Kennedy in Canada's Yukon Territory . The almost 4000  m high summit had only recently been named after the murdered President John F. Kennedy.

In September 1978 Whittaker led an American expedition to K2 in the Karakoram , the second highest mountain on earth. Although this mountain is considered to be far more difficult than Everest, the mountaineers of the expedition were the first Americans to succeed in climbing the summit.

Whittaker was the leader of the Everest Peace Climb in 1990 , which brought together representatives from the USA, the People's Republic of China and the former USSR ( Russia , Kazakhstan and Ukraine ). 20 climbers reached the summit of Mount Everest. On their way back , the expedition took over two tons of rubbish left behind from previous expeditions.

In 1999 Whittaker published his autobiography A Life on the Edge: Memoirs of Everest and Beyond .

Individual evidence

  1. Stephanie Geiger: A revolutionary project Neue Zürcher Zeitung, May 3, 2013
  2. Michael Shnayerson: Jim Whittaker, Back on Earth . National Geographic Adventure Magazine, May 2003

Web links