Jim Whittaker, a Seattle-born-and-raised mountaineer who achieved legendary status when he became the first American to summit the world’s tallest peak in 1963, died Tuesday in Port Townsend at the age of 97.
Cascadia Daily News reported Whittaker’s death in an obituary published Wednesday morning.
Whittaker reached the top of Mount Everest on May 1, 1963, alongside Nawang Gombu Sherpa, drawing on years of formative climbing experience forged in the Cascades. His historic ascent, a decade after Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, earned him and his American Everest Expedition teammates the National Geographic Society’s Hubbard Medal. In 1978, Whittaker led the first successful U.S. expedition to K2, the world’s second-tallest peak, and set a record as leader of the largest successful Everest expedition in 1990…