Jim Whitaker
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Jim Whitaker (born 1929) was the first American to climb Mt. Everest.
Whitaker is from Seattle, Washington.
On May 1, 1963, Whitaker and Sherpa guide, Nawang Gombu, reached the summit of the highest peak in the world.
On May 22, 1963, Americans Barry Bishop and Lute Jerstad repeated the climb via the standard South Col route. On the same day, Willi Unsoeld and Dr. Tom Hornbein climbed Everest by a new route, the West Ridge. The expedition was sponsored by the National Geographic Society.
Willi Unsoeld was later killed by an avalanche on Mt. Rainier in Washington State.
Whitaker was the first full-time employee of REI. Under his leadership, the Seattle-based company established itself nationwide as a leading outfitter of outdoors equipment.
He led the 1990 Everest Peace Climb that brought together climbers from the USA, USSR and China to climb the world's tallest peak. In addition to putting more than a dozen climbers on the summit, the expedition hauled off a tremendous amount of refuse left on the mountain by previous expeditions.
Whitaker is chairman of the board of Magellan, a company that produces handheld global positioning system (GPS) units.
His brother Lou Whitaker is also a world-renowned mountain climber and founder of Rainier Mountaineering Inc, a Washington state guiding company.
In 2005 Whitaker released his autobiography, A Life on the Edge: Memoirs of Everest and Beyond.
