Jim Whittaker, the first American to climb Mount Everest, is donating most of the gear he used in the 1963 ascent to the American Mountaineering Center in Golden, Colo.
The Port Townsend resident’s ice ax, books, pack, parka, wind pants and the U.S. flag he carried are among items that will be displayed when the museum opens next year.
The items had been on display for decades at a visitor center at Mount Rainier National Park in Washington, where they were mounted on a mannequin enclosed in glass.
The center is being replaced, and Whittaker went last week to pick them up.
“I was a dummy up there for a long time — people would push a button and I’d talk,” Whittaker, 73, said Sunday. “It was really different, picking up the pack, touching it. It really brought back memories.”
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