Jim Whittaker, who has died aged 97, was the first American to reach the summit of Everest, on May 1 1963, and the last ...

In his latest video dispatch, our Mount Everest reporter discusses whether his trek to Base Camp motivated him to try and scale the mountain Video loading... Ever year, several thousand hikers ...

Whittaker trained Army soldiers at Camp Hale during the Korean War before becoming the first American to summit Everest and later becoming the CEO of REI.

Whittaker’s ascent of Everest made him an instant celebrity who ultimately ended up changing the climbing world forever ...

A Colorado climber died shortly after getting to the top of Mount Everest and achieving his dream of scaling the highest peaks on each of the seven continents, his brother said Monday. Christopher ...

Climbing season is here on the world’s highest peak, and there’s already controversy, new technology, and historic adventures ...

Editor’s note: “Behind the News” is the product of Sun staff assisted by the Sun’s AI lab, which includes a variety of tools such as Anthropic’s Claude, Perplexity AI, Google Gemini and ChatGPT.

His historic 1963 ascent made him a national hero and helped promote mountaineering in the United States.

Jim Whittaker, who became the first American mountaineer to summit Mt. Everest in 1963, died April 7. He was 97. MORE: ...

Jim Whittaker, a Seattle born and raised mountaineer who achieved legendary status when he became the first American to ...