SEATTLE — Lou Whittaker, a legendary American mountaineer who assisted in the ascents of Mount Everest, K2 and Denali, and who taught generations of climbers during his more than 250 treks on Mount Rainier, the highest mountain in Washington state, has passed away at the age of 95. age deceased.
RMI Expeditions, the guiding company he founded in 1969, confirmed he died peacefully at home on Sunday.
“Mountains were the source of his health, the source of his self-confidence and the stage for his triumphs, and he was one of the first to make mountaineering and its benefits accessible to the wider public,” the company said in a statement on its website. website Wednesday. “His leadership made mountain guiding a real profession, with many of the world’s best mountaineers benefiting from Lou’s guidance.”
Whittaker and his twin brother Jim Whittaker – who became the first American to climb Everest in 1963 – grew up in Seattle and started climbing with the Boy Scouts in the 1940s. At age 16, they reached 8,000-foot Mount Olympus, the highest peak in the Olympic Mountains west of Seattle, Jim Whittaker recounts in his memoir “A Life on the Edge.” When they reached the city of Port Angeles on the way home, they found cars honking and people celebrating: World War II was over.
They also began participating in mountain rescue efforts – including the search for nine troops who had parachuted from a military aircraft over Mount Rainier during a storm; all but one survived. Lou Whittaker has saved dozens of lives during numerous rescue attempts during his career, according to RMI.
In the early 1950s, the brothers served with the Army’s Mountain and Cold Weather command at Camp Hale, Colorado, where they trained an elite group of soldiers – the 10th Mountain Division – to carry out war missions in unforgiving mountain conditions, according to a profile by the two from the Northwest Outdoor nonprofit The Mountaineers.
When they returned from service, Jim Whittaker became the manager of the REI gear cooperative’s first store; he would later become its CEO. Lou Whittaker began guiding people on the climbs of Rainier, Denali and other peaks.
Lou Whittaker declined to join the Everest expedition that made his brother famous because he and a partner planned to open a sporting goods store in Tacoma. The decision came as a shock to his brother, but Lou Whittaker wrote in his own book, “Lou Whittaker: Memoirs of a Mountain Guide,” that he still got to share some of his twin brother’s glory by filling in as Jim grew tired of attending parades or other events in his honor.
“Only our families and closest friends ever knew the difference,” he wrote.
Lou Whittaker took thousands of clients to Mount Rainier and made a point of pride in how his company trained both his guides and clients. One of RMI’s longtime guides is Ed Viesturs, known for climbing the world’s 14 highest peaks without the aid of supplemental oxygen.
Originally called Rainier Mountaineering Inc., the company is now owned by Lou Whittaker’s son, Peter.
Lou Whittaker survived avalanches, severe storms and other harrowing events, and he lost several friends or clients during expeditions. He wasn’t on an RMI expedition on Mount Rainier in 1981 when a massive icefall claimed 11 climbers – 10 novices and a guide – in what remains the deadliest mountaineering disaster in the US. His son Peter survived.
Lou and Jim Whittaker led the party that attempted to retrieve the victims, but they were never found.
Lou Whittaker never climbed Everest himself. But in 1984 he led the expedition that included the first successful American summit, and the third overall, from the colder north side.
He was down-to-earth about the risks of mountain climbing and said he didn’t want to die without knowing he had lived.
“Climbing is not a fatality,” he told The Associated Press in 1983. “Climbing is the reward you get, the fun and health you get when you go outside.”
When a Seattle Times reporter asked him in 1989 why he climbed mountains, he replied, “If you have to ask, you wouldn’t understand if I told you.”
Lou Whittaker said he stopped climbing in his late 70s.
In addition to his twin brother, he is survived by his wife Ingrid; his sons, Peter and Win; three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his daughter Kim.
