Lou Whittaker, an elder statesman of American climbing who led pioneering expeditions to Mount Everest, started one of the country’s premier guide services and summited his own backyard peak ...

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 ...

Everest in 1963. Lou Whittaker himself claimed an American superlative on the world’s highest peak, leading the first American ascent of the Everest North Col in 1984. Born and raised in Seattle ...

10. As a result of his achievement, Whittaker was chosen in 1965 to guide Sen. Robert Kennedy on the first ascent of Mount Kennedy, a 14,000-foot peak in Canada. “Going up the mountain ...