Lou Whittaker, dead at 95

The Seattle Times:

Lou Whittaker, a Seattle-born and -raised mountaineer and glacier travel guide who climbed Mount Rainier more than 250 times, died Sunday at 95.

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In 1984, he led the first successful American summit of the North Col of Mount Everest. In 1989, the adventurer led the first American expedition of 12 climbers up Kanchenjunga, in the Himalayas, the world’s third-highest peak, and got six people to the summit.

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When a Seattle Times reporter asked Lou Whittaker “Why do you climb a mountain” in 1989, he replied: “If you have to ask, you wouldn’t understand if I told you.”

Lou Whittaker is undoubtably a global icon in the mountaineering world, but he also put Seattle and the surrounding areas toward Mt. Rainier on the global map. There are very few big city urban areas, which are at sea level that are associated with the outdoors in the way Seattle is.