Lou Whittaker(1929-2024)
- Actor
Lou Whittaker, a legendary American mountaineer who helped lead ascents of Mount Everest, K2 and Denali, and who taught generations of climbers during his more than 250 trips up Mount Rainier, the tallest peak in Washington state.
RMI Expeditions, the guide company he founded in 1969. Mountains were the source of his health, the wellspring of his confidence, and the stage for his triumphs, and he was one of the first to make mountaineering and its benefits accessible to the broader public.
Whittaker and his twin brother Jim Whittaker - who in 1963 became the the first American to summit Everest - grew up in Seattle and began climbing in the 1940s with the Boy Scouts. At 16, they summited 7,965-foot (2,428-meter) Mount Olympus, the highest peak in the Olympic Mountains west of Seattle
RMI Expeditions, the guide company he founded in 1969. Mountains were the source of his health, the wellspring of his confidence, and the stage for his triumphs, and he was one of the first to make mountaineering and its benefits accessible to the broader public.
Whittaker and his twin brother Jim Whittaker - who in 1963 became the the first American to summit Everest - grew up in Seattle and began climbing in the 1940s with the Boy Scouts. At 16, they summited 7,965-foot (2,428-meter) Mount Olympus, the highest peak in the Olympic Mountains west of Seattle
