PORT TOWNSEND — Leif Whittaker added to his family’s proud mountaineering legacy by conquering the summit of Mount Everest — a second time.
The 27-year-old son of Jim Whittaker, who was the first American to reach the Everest summit in 1963, Leif Whittaker spent a short time with his climbing expedition team of four at the oxygen-depleted, 29,035-foot summit shortly after 9:30 p.m. Pacific time Friday before descending.
Both Leif’s mother, Dianne Roberts, and Jim expressed delight Saturday morning near their home in uptown Port Townsend as they basked in their son’s great accomplishment.
They had yet to hear from Leif because of a malfunctioning satellite phone.
“I’m so proud of him,” Jim Whittaker said.
“He loves the mountains, he loves climbing, and he loves nature, and he’s doing pretty well.”
It was Leif’s second climb of the tallest peak on Earth. The mountain poses an exhausting challenge of high altitude, treacherous and icy conditions, and unpredictable weather.
The young Whittaker first climbed Everest in May 2010, following in his father’s footsteps.
His parents said Leif was a natural when it came to mountaineering.
“We took him to the base of Everest in 2003,” Jim recalled, when Leif was in his late teens.
“We started by climbing up Rainier, and he just took to it.
“He spent about three hours looking at the mountain and came back and said that he wanted to climb it,” Jim Whittaker said of his son’s first sight of Everest.
“He’s a good climber. He’s smart, and he’s good, and he’s in good shape,” his father added.
Roberts said she expected to hear from him by phone sometime Saturday night from Camp 2, where the expedition probably will catch up on sleep before heading back down to base camp.
“Everyone is in excellent shape and probably just sleeping like crazy now,” she said Saturday morning.
Since mother and father have not heard from their son since Saturday a week ago, the call was highly anticipated.
Mountaineer Alan Arnette, who writes a blog at www.alanarnette.com/blog, reported: “By many accounts, this past weekend, especially Saturday night was difficult.
“Friday it was the crowds, Saturday it was the winds. Several teams are now safely back in base camp and climbers are updating their blogs.”
The weather window on the Everest climbing season was about to close until fall, Arnette said.
“Weather conditions indicated an increase in upper level moisture in Southern India [on Friday] and beyond,” Arnette said.
“Models are also starting to show a shift in the upper winds . . . in Southern India and beyond to a more easterly direction,” he added.
“Both of these weather patterns are indicators that the monsoon should be starting soon.”
With the weather window closing, climbers scrambled to climb Everest, which led to a traffic jam last weekend and four deaths May 19, apparently from altitude sickness and exhaustion.
Roberts said Leif’s experienced team chose to wait out the first wave of climbers, which numbered more than 200.
“They stayed back in base camp and waited for the second wave,” she said, adding that Leif was among the more experienced climbers who preferred to wait so they could more quickly ascend the mountain without being held up by other climbers.
“There was no drama as of [Friday],” she said, calling the deaths “tragic.”
“It’s a dangerous mountain.”
Like Leif Whittaker’s last trek up Everest, this expedition is sponsored by Eddie Bauer/First Ascent and has the same Seattle-based guide, Dave Hahn, as in 2010.
This year’s climb is with four climbers instead of eight, and there is no live blogging as in 2010.
Hahn and his fellow guide, Melissa Arnot, on Saturday posted at www.rmiguides.com/blog an expedition dispatch from 21,000 feet:
“After making great progress on their descent, Rainier Mountaineering Inc. Expeditions guides Dave Hahn & Melissa Arnot and team are safely at Camp 2! It was a long day but sleep will be so nice with the thick air . . . I will continue to send updates as the team makes their way back to Everest Basecamp.”
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2390 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
