“He didn’t let his age and fear of getting hurt stop him from doing what he loved,” his son Leif said
Credit: Jeff Chiu/AP
NEED TO KNOW
- Jim Whittaker, the first American to reach the top of Mount Everest, has died
- He achieved the historic feat on May 1, 1963, at just 34 years old
- Whittaker reportedly skied into his early 80s before dying at 97 years old in April 2026
Jim Whittaker, a Seattle native who became the first American to reach the top of Mount Everest, has died. He was 97 years old.
Whittaker died at his home in Port Townsend, Wash., on Tuesday, April 7, CNN reported Wednesday, April 8, citing a statement from his family.
Born James Warren Whittaker on Feb. 10, 1929, he went on to become a climber and mountain guide who would ultimately make history on May 1, 1963, as the first person from the United States to hike to the peak of Earth's highest mountain above sea level, which sits at nearly 9,000 meters in Asia.
Credit: 1091 Pictures
At the time, he was just 34 years old when he received the National Geographic Society’s Hubbard Medal on behalf of himself and his expedition team.
The award was presented to him by President John F. Kennedy in the Rose Garden.
“I didn’t realize what impact [the climb] would have,” Whittaker previously said of the honor, per National Geographic. “I didn’t think it would catch the imagination of the public as much as it did.”
When the former president was assassinated months later in November 1963 at the age of 46, Whittaker later took his brother, Robert F. Kennedy, to a Canadian peak named after JFK.
Their journey was featured in the documentary Return to Mount Kennedy.
“I was so delighted because I wanted him to get up there and show you the first human being to stand on the peak named after his brother,” Whittaker said in the documentary, tearing up.
“That’s where the tears freeze up on the parka,” he added. “We were bawling, it was really emotional.”
He also released A Life on the Edge: Memoirs of Everest and Beyond in 2000 to tell his life story.
Credit: AP
One of Whittaker’s sons, Leif Whittaker, spoke to Cascadia Daily News about what he considered to be one of his father’s greatest accomplishments.
“I was sitting at the South Summit at about 300 vertical feet from the top and looking at the Hillary Step, I had this vision of my dad and Nawang Gombu Sherpa climbing up there,” he said of his own 2012 Mount Everest climb, per The Seattle Times.
“It’s 50 years earlier and I imagined what that was like without the fixed ropes, without the crowds. Just those two with a single rope connecting them and ascending this incredibly challenging terrain through a storm no less,” he added of his father’s historic hike.
People living in Whittaker’s Port Townsend hometown would regularly see him walking his dog well into his 90s, and he skied until he was 87 years old, Cascadia Daily News reported.
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“He didn’t let his age and fear of getting hurt stop him from doing what he loved,” Leif said, per the outlet.
In addition to Leif, Whittaker is survived by his wife of over 52 years, Dianne; his sons, Bob Whittaker and Joss Whittaker; his grandchildren, Adam Whittaker, Tony Whittaker, and Sarah Kanzler; and his great-granddaughter, Sophie Whittaker, Seattle’s KOMO News reported Wednesday.
His older brother, Barney, and two other sons from his first marriage, Scott and Carl, previously died, according to the New York Times. Whittaker’s twin brother, Lou Whittaker, died in March 2024.
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