Big Jim. A gentle giant. A gem of a human, and a loss that will be missed.
Jim Whittaker, who passed away at 97 on April 7, was - to say the least - an amazing person. Like his twin brother - Lou Whittaker, who passed two years back - Jim was a massive man, 6 foot 6 inches tall, broad shouldered and towering, arms bigger than most legs, strapping, handsome, huge.
But, Jim had a gentle disposition, a thoughtful, introspective way about him that showed quickly he was not just a big, lumbering oaf, but rather a man of depth and wisdom.
While I worked for Lou at Rainier Mountaineering for years, I didn’t get to know Jim in person until much later, during my time at Eddie Bauer and especially during the filming of our 2012 film, High & Hallowed: Everest 1963. In that year, Jim and his wife, Diane Roberts, joined us on the trek into Everest Basecamp, and their son, Leif, was there, too, climbing the route his dad scaled 49 years earlier.
It was beyond special to sit in the Khumbu and hear Jim’s stories of the same place, a time-warp prior: no people, an empty mountain, chatting about the route with Sir Edmund Hillary along the way, and more. And, to see him reunited decades hence with Kancha Sherpa, swapping stories and memories and laughter…priceless.
Jim’s life pre and post-Everest seems almost impossible:
- He and Lou taught soldiers of the 10th Mountain Division at Camp Hale in Leadville, Colorado, during the Korean War.
- In 1955, Jim became the first full-time employee of a new, cooperative outdoor company called Recreational Equipment, Inc. (REI); he would become CEO for a time in the 1960s.
- On May 1, 1963, Big Jim - along with his friend, Ngawang Gombu - became the first American to summit Mount Everest, becoming the 9th and 10th people to do so (assuming you believe the Chinese put three on top in 1960, as I do).
- In 1965, Jim and Dee Molenaar guided Bobby Kennedy up Mount Kennedy, a 14,000 foot summit in the Canadian Yukon named after his brother, John F. Kennedy, making the first ascent of the peak.
- Jim led the 1975 attempt on K2, and led a second expedition again in 1978, taking a new route (Northeast Ridge) up the mountain, making the third ascent, and putting the first Americans - Louis Reichardt, Jim Wickwire, John Roskelley, and Rick Ridgeway - atop the world’s second highest peak. (Rick Ridgway’s K2: The Last Step is a classic read.)
- In 1990, he led the Earth Day 20 International Peace Climb, which put climbers from China, the USSR, and USA on the summit together.
But, all that was window dressing in Jim’s life. The most important aspect of Big Jim was his humanity. A kind, loving, bear of a man, Jim told stories - and told them well - but also listened to them, willing to put aside his well-earned ego to hear from others, offer his ear and his insight, his wit and wisdom.
As Michael Levy wrote in a wonderful remembrance in Summit Journal, Everest - as he was reminded every May 1st by Tom Hornbein - was the thing that Jim would be most remembered for…at least in the public eye. I’ve always loved and envied Tom’s wisdom and cutting honesty, but I sure hope in this case he was wrong: Everest was a thing that Jim did, not what Jim was. His life far transcended that little patch of snow up painfully high, and for that he will be remembered, and for that his loss will be felt, and honored.
Thank you, Jim, for your life, your passion, your legacy.
