PORT TOWNSEND — Leif Whittaker torqued his 6-foot-5 frame toward his playgrounds as we stood at the edge of Port Townsend on a windswept spring day last month.
Whittaker, 39, pointed toward his close-to-home training peaks — Mount Walker and Mount Townsend.
Then he gazed across the water at Mount Baker, buried in fluffy clouds. Whittaker spent a decade as a U.S. Forest Service climbing ranger there while living in Bellingham.
On May 12, Whittaker and his girlfriend plan to climb the conical volcano he has summited about 80 times.
“My heart and soul is in the Mount Baker backcountry,” he said.
But for now, the tug of his family keeps Whittaker in Port Townsend, where he grew up in a household of mountaineering royalty.
His father, Jim Whittaker, is the first American to scale Mount Everest. Jim also was the first full-time employee of Recreational Equipment, Inc. (REI) and retired as its chief executive.
He became friends with Robert F. Kennedy in 1965 when taking the political luminary on a first ascent of Mount Kennedy in the Yukon.
Leif’s mother, Dianne Roberts, helped organize and fund two expeditions to K2, including the first American ascent of the world’s second-highest peak in 1978. Roberts set a high altitude record for North American women by ascending to nearly 8,000 meters (26,247 feet) without bottled oxygen.
Then there is Leif’s uncle and his father’s twin. Lou Whittaker, who died on March 24 in Ashford, Pierce County, co-founded the famed guiding company Rainier Mountaineering, Inc. He was 95.
Jim Whittaker, also 95, continues going strong, taking daily walks with the family dog. He skied at 87 and reached Everest base camp at 83.
“He doesn’t let his age and fear of getting hurt stop him from doing what he loves,” Leif said.
Roberts, 76, has a similar approach to life. She trains rigorously as a competitive rower despite having both knees and hips replaced.
Escaping the massive shadow of his parents has been difficult, as Whittaker outlined in the memoir, “My Old Man and the Mountain.”
Sometimes, he sees the legacy as a burden, Whittaker said. “And sometimes it is. But I’ve also come to realize it is an incredible privilege and opportunity.”
The parents consciously downplayed their accomplishments in rearing Leif and his older brother Joss, an archeologist with the Washington State Department of Natural Resources.
They pulled the boys from school to spend four years sailing to and from Australia — far from Washington’s mountains.
The Whittaker teens gravitated to climbing on their own when scaling Mount Olympus 24 years ago.
Leif, who earned a degree in English from Western Washington University, wrote in his memoir, “My backpack weighs a thousand pounds. It’s full of gear I found in the garage and don’t really know how to use: a ratty harness that’s too big for me, a bunch of carabiners that look like they’re from the seventies, crampons with leather straps, and an ice axe with all sorts of dents and nicks in the shaft. I’m wearing stiff-as-a-board leather boots that must’ve been Dad’s back in the day and they’re killing me already.”
The brothers ascended without a detailed plan and thankfully met a climber who showed them the route to the top. The experience on the 7,980-foot Olympus changed Whittaker’s outlook.
“That euphoria of standing on the summit is where passion for mountaineering began,” he said.
Three years later, Leif joined a Whittaker family trek to Everest base camp to commemorate the 40th anniversary of his father’s famous climb.
Seeing Everest left Whittaker yearning to climb it, Roberts said, who added she didn’t want her sons to fear tough challenges.
“They can fix a car, rig a boat and climb mountains,” Roberts said. “They’ve seen enough of the world to understand their privilege in living the way they do.”
Even after years of successful climbing, Whittaker dismisses his achievements because of the history coursing through his parents’ home.
I had to remind him of his impressive resume, particularly with all of his injuries.
Whittaker had back surgery in 2008 to repair a ruptured disk. Yet, he summited Mount Everest in 2010 and 2012. He also climbed the highest peak in South America — 22,837-foot Aconcagua in Argentina — and Antarctica’s 16,050-foot Vinson Massif back-to-back.
Whittaker graduated to those lofty climbs after standing atop the prominent peaks of Washington. He also has climbed North America’s highest mountain, Denali, in Alaska.
Whittaker continues to climb even after a full hip replacement last year. The injuries might have limited his ability to reach the top tier of mountaineering, but accepting the situation has been a gift.
“For me, the outdoors is not competitive,” he said between sips of coffee. “They’re not comparative in that way. It’s about being out and experiencing it for yourself. Being grounded by nature. Being nourished by nature.”
The positive stance helps shape Whittaker’s work as a climbing coach for Evoke Endurance, a Montana-based company that trains alpinists.
He now gets as much joy in helping others reach their goals as with his achievements. Mike Sidwell, one of Whittaker’s climbing partners from Bellingham, said his friend’s prowess is building confidence in others.
Whittaker had four athletes climbing Everest the day we met.
“Even for the fittest athlete, Everest is frickin’ hard,” he said. “It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done physically and mentally.”
Whittaker has created an 18-week training plan for the 2024 climbing season. It is designed for scaling Mount Rainier, the mountain where Jim and Lou Whittaker began guiding in 1948.
The program, which applies to Mount Baker and any other difficult ascent, emphasizes consistency. Whittaker understands the need to push the limits but encourages his charges to shift away from the “no pain, no gain” mindset.
From Whittaker’s program: “Training makes you weaker, but recovery makes you fitter. Your body must recover in order to get stronger.”
Whittaker also encourages clients to embrace the joy of training instead of focusing on the result.
The program recounts an anecdote about his father’s climb to Everest base camp at age 83.
Jim Whittaker stopped just below a monastery at 12,500 feet. Whittaker writes his father turned to the group, smiled, and bellowed, “Every step is health, fun and frolic!”
The Whittaker legacy lives on.
Leif Whittaker and fellow Evoke Endurance coach Maya Seckinger are scheduled to appear at 7 p.m. on Thursday, May 23 at the Mountaineers Club in Seattle for a two-hour talk on preparing for the summer climbing season. For information: mountaineers.org.
Elliott Almond's outdoor column appears monthly. Email: elliottalmond4@gmail.com.
