https://apnews.com/article/mountaineer-everest-rainier-jim-whittaker-b74435763e4b14cf5216995ed15f44fa
Lou Whittaker, among the most famous American mountaineers, has died
at age 95

BY GENE JOHNSON
Updated 8:03 PM CDT, March 27, 2024
Share
SEATTLE (AP) — Lou Whittaker, a legendary American mountaineer who
helped lead ascents of Mount Everest, K2 and Denali, and who taught
generations of climbers during his more than 250 trips up Mount
Rainier, the tallest peak in Washington state, has died at age 95.

RMI Expeditions, the guide company he founded in 1969, confirmed that
he died peacefully at home Sunday.

“Mountains were the source of his health, the wellspring of his
confidence, and the stage for his triumphs, and he was one of the
first to make mountaineering and its benefits accessible to the
broader public,” the company said in statement posted to its website
Wednesday. “His leadership made mountain guiding a true profession,
with many of the world’s premier mountaineers benefiting from Lou’s
tutelage.”

Whittaker and his twin brother Jim Whittaker — who in 1963 became the
the first American to summit Everest — grew up in Seattle and began
climbing 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.

[continues at URL]