Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 3, 1995 TAG: 9504040018
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
But the charismatic founder of Rainier Mountaineering Inc., a guide service in Washington state, attributes it all to the simple act of walking and being introduced to nature by his mother during the Great Depression.
Hortense Whittaker, now 94, took Lou, his twin, Jim, and their older brother, Barney, on walks in the woods. In 1963, Jim Whittaker became the first American to reach the summit of Mount Everest, a decade after Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay's famous ascent.
"At 3 and 4 years old, mom would have taught us the names of trees and flowers," Lou Whittaker said. "It connected us with nature some."
Whittaker enthralled a Virginia Tech audience of climbers, hikers and outdoors enthusiasts recently with two hours of tales and slides from his 50 years of mountaineering. Whittaker started his guide service and much of his climbing on Mount Rainier, a 14,410-foot peak in the Cascades near Seattle.
But his mountaineering exploits span the decades and the globe. He participated in an unsuccessful but famous American attempt on K2 - second-highest in the Himalayas and the world - in 1975; and led a tragic journey up Everest in '82 and a triumphant return in '84 (though Whittaker didn't make the summit himself; he was waylaid at 24,800 feet when the bitter wind temporarily froze his eyeballs despite goggles). In 1989, six members of his team reached the summit of Kanchenjunga, the third-highest mountain in the world. Whittaker recounts those adventures and many others in an autobiography published late last year, "Lou Whittaker: Memoirs of a Mountain Guide" (The Mountaineers Books, Seattle).
A natural storyteller, Whittaker's spiel included mountain-rescue stories, remembrances of friends he's lost in climbing accidents, high-elevation health tips and smatterings of his philosophy of life.
He believes society must start with its youngest members if it is to develop a respect for nature and wilderness.
"I think the parent is responsible for the education of the child," Whittaker said. If children "make that link with nature, then they're going to remember that when they grow up. You don't learn this hiking in the mall. Just movement in the outdoors is healthy and feels good."
The childhood lessons he and his twin learned from their mother, and later from Boy Scouts, stood them well over the years, Whittaker said.
"A kid that's hiked and been tired, when he's tired later on recognizes he's not going to die from it," he said. "The top mountaineers are the ones who've learned to accept discomfort.
"We all are now instant-gratification people ... it'd be great sometimes to be out six miles with no Coke" when a child demands one, he said. That would teach preparation, self-reliance and the knowledge that soft drinks, television and other luxuries we take for granted aren't necessary to survive. "Then in life, when you reach certain obstacles, you're more secure," Whittaker said.
Plus, learning about the outdoors at a young age can have future benefits to the environment. "They're not going to pave it over when they're 30 years old," Whittaker said. "If they don't go out, they'll say, 'Let's make another mall.'''
by CNB