Everest anniversary
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Jim Whittaker, left, and Sherpa Nawang Gombu summited Mount Everest together in 1963. It cemented a bond for the two men. Click through our gallery to see Whittaker’s time on Everest, and how his son, Leif, has followed in his footsteps.
Whittaker summits Mount Everest on May 1, 1963, at 1 p.m.
Jim Whittaker after the climb.
Sherpas, known as high-altitude porters in 1963, carry packs on the 185-mile trek to reach Everest base camp.
Climbers work their way through the dangerous Khumbu Icefall, a shedding glacier just after Everest base camp.
The Khumbu Icefall is also where expedition member Jake Breitenbach lost his life when the ice became unstable and buried him (not pictured).
President John F. Kennedy awards Jim Whittaker the Hubbard Medal.
Whittaker, right, and his son, Leif, near Everest base camp in 2012.
Leif Whittaker captured this photo as Dave Hahn ascends the rocky Geneva Spur between Camp 3 and Camp 4 in 2010. The following images feature his stunning photographry during 2010 and 2012 on Everest.
Mount Everest base camp at night during the 2012 expedition.
Leif Whittaker stands on the summit of Mount Everest on May 26, 2012.
Camp 3, at 24,000 feet above sea level, on the Lhotse Face at sunset during the 2010 expedition.
Expedition member Dave Hahn peers out at the Himalaya from Pumori Camp I in 2012.
A Buddhist stupa on the trail to Mount Everest Base Camp in 2012.
Expedition member Melissa Arnot uses a ladder to cross in the Khumbu Icefall in 2012.
Camp 2, at 21,300 feet, in an Everest featured named the Western Cwm, in 2010.
Jim and Leif pause for a moment on the trail to Mount Everest Base Camp in 2012.
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(CNN) — When Jim Whittaker became the first American to stand on top of Mount Everest 50 years ago, he was anything but elated.
Reaching Earth’s highest point only 10 years after New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary became the first to summit, Whittaker said 50 mph winds were “blowing like hell,” compounding the already outrageous temperature of 35 below zero.
The jetstream blasted Whittaker and Sherpa Nawang Gombu as Whittaker pounded the pick of his American flag into the ice.
But when the two men looked down from their perch, 29,028 feet above sea level, they realized summiting was not their journey’s end. They still had far to go, and they’d just run out of bottled oxygen on top of the world.
Sherpas, climbers sign Everest treaty
Saudi woman makes Everest history
“Oh, boy, we’ve got to get down,” Whittaker thought. “Getting to the summit is half of the climb. You’re working so hard to get up, you don’t really think about anything else.”
Whittaker’s expedition members’ childhoods had been filled with a passion for climbing.
Richard Pownall was bitten by the mountaineering bug in 1943 when an English teacher sent students to the library to pick out a book. After reading about climbing, Pownall got a summer job working at Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, but that stint couldn’t sate his curiosity and zeal for exploration.
Whittaker discovered his passion at 14, scaling the peaks of the Northwest U.S. and, later, while guiding people up Mount Rainier in college. After summiting Mount McKinley, the highest U.S. peak, the next natural step was “the big one,” he said.
When the Americans began scaling Everest, their journey was far different from that of today’s climbers. For one, they were the only team on the mountain at the time.
They also had to trek 185 miles through the sweltering Chitwa Jungle, their packs stuffed with cold-weather gear for when the elevation rose. That’s about the distance from Seattle, Washington, to Portland, Oregon, though the Nepalese trek involves pathways along 18,000-foot ridges, Whittaker pointed out.
Today, climbers fly 140 miles into Nepal and trek 40 miles into base camp.
80-year-old Japanese man becomes oldest to climb Mount Everest
Once at Everest, it wasn’t long before Whittaker’s expedition experienced disaster. Two days into the climb, three men were opening a route through the Khumbu Icefall — where descending glaciers break off into jagged, car- and house-sized chunks — when glacier pieces collapsed around them, burying them in ice, Pownall said.
He was able to climb out, but ended his summit attempt.
Jake Breitenbach, a 27-year-old guide from Jackson, Wyoming, didn’t survive. He was buried deep in the ice. His body wouldn’t be recovered until much later.
“You’re halfway around the world,” Whittaker said. “You immediately think of your family.”
They were all shaken, but Everest’s fierce conditions forbade them from dwelling on it. They had to keep moving. They could mourn later.
Though the view from the peak is spectacular, the Himalayas and Nepal unfolding beneath them, Whittaker said his team was more amazed by the scenery on their way back down. After months of living in thin air, they noticed the air became thicker and softer as the oxygen increased.
At one point, they found themselves clustered, looking down at a little blade of grass coming up through the scree.
“This green, emerald green — God, it was just incredible,” Whittaker said. “There is nothing growing up above, no color — it’s all snow, ice and rock. We were in tears. We had lost Jake up on the mountain but now we were coming back into life, this beautiful, lush, gorgeous planet that supports life. A little blade of grass just stunned the whole team.”
Almost 49 years after summiting Everest, Whittaker, then-83, found himself back at base camp in 2012. His son, Leif, 27, wanted to reach the so-called “Head of the Sky” for a second time. Leif Whittaker had done it without his father in 2010.
Whittaker and his son had trekked to a base camp in 2003, but they had no intention of summiting.
First Saudi woman summits Mount Everest
Whittaker said he never encouraged or discouraged his son from mountaineering, but his son discovered it for himself at age 15. After being asked so many times if he’d follow in his dad’s footsteps up the face of Everest, Leif found his answer on their 2003 trip.
“It was the natural power and majesty of that place that I felt some special connection to,” Leif said. “I think we all are affected by landscapes in a different way, and for me, a boy who had grown up with that idea of Mount Everest in his head, seeing Everest for the first time made me want to climb it.”
Whittaker hoped to walk into base camp with his son in 2012, but a day from their destination, he caught an intestinal bug. The seasoned mountaineer who had once conquered Everest was within him, telling him to keep going, but he decided it was too dicey.
Meanwhile, Leif Whittaker faced a different danger: overcrowding. Ten people died on Everest in 2012, raising questions about how many people should receive permits to scale the perilous peak.
Leif waited for more than an hour at 28,700 feet, just below the summit, as 100 people slowly descended the tricky Hillary Step. If it hadn’t been for calm winds May 26, the last window of good weather, he would have been forced back down.
“Each person climbs Everest for different reasons. The reason that I climb is because I love the mountain, I love what comes with it: the view from the top, the camaraderie of good teammates, the personal challenge of the experience, pushing past your own boundaries and growing because of that experience.”
Father and son experienced the magnitude of emotion that comes with being at Everest together, and Whittaker is proud his son reached the summit twice. While the achievement continues the family legacy, Whittaker wanted his children to appreciate the life around them.
“I came back from Everest without ego because you realize how insignificant you are, just a speck in the vast universe,” Whittaker said. “You dwell in the silence of the forest and the high mountains. They are the highest cathedrals in the world.”
Childhood dream leads climber up Everest — twice in one week
Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/24/us/everest-1963-expedition-whittaker/index.html?eref=edition
The Sydney Opera House took center stage at the opening of the Vivid Sydney festival. 
The festival is in its fifth year and 2013 is the first time the Sydney Harbour Bridge has been lit up as part of the show. There is an interactive programming station that allows the public to control the lights on the bridge.
The festival is anticipated to draw 550,000 people, organizers say.
The festival has three parts: Vivid Light, Vivid Music and Vivid Ideas. Here, the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia gets a new life as part of Vivid Light.
Customs House is another iconic Sydney structure lit up for the festival.
As well as guys in their 60s wearing jumpsuits, the Kraftwerk show came with 3-D effects.
German techno pioneers Kraftwerk headline Vivid Music. They are one of around 25 music performances during the festival. It is music. Non-stop.
Darling Harbour was part of Vivid Light for the first time, transforming the area into a spectacle of dancing water fountains.
Projections onto the water fountains were masterminded by France’s legendary Aquatique Show International.
“Vivid Sydney is now the Southern Hemisphere’s largest festival of light, music and ideas,” NSW Deputy Premier Andrew Stoner said.
The 3-D-mapped light projections on the Opera House’s sails were produced by Australian creative outfit, The Spinifex Group.
Carol Kawaykla holds a picture of her mother she found in the rubble of her tornado-devastated home in Moore, Oklahoma, on Friday, May 24. View more photos of the aftermath in the region and another gallery of aerial shots of the damage.
The sun sets over debris from houses littering the ground in Moore, Oklahoma, on Thursday, May 23, three days after the town was damaged by a tornado. 
Debris is scattered across a driveway on May 23. Severe thunderstorms barreled through this Oklahoma City suburb at dawn Thursday, complicating cleanup efforts.
Lightning strikes during a thunderstorm as people search for items that can be saved from their devastated home on May 23.
A devastated neighborhood is seen on May 23 in Moore.
A woman searches for belongings at a home on May 22 in Moore.
Michael Pritz swings a golf club while taking a break from helping his friend to salvage belongings on May 22.
Debris litters what remains of a classroom at Plaza Towers Elementary School on May 22. Seven children died at the school in Monday’s tornado.
A makeshift shelter stands next to a home destroyed by the tornado on May 22.
Casey Angle walks on the bunk bed she shared with her sister Sydney, who was among the students killed at Plaza Towers Elementary School during the tornado.
Tara McDonald shows some items salvaged from her home on May 22.
A swing set sits warped at Plaza Towers Elementary School on May 22. 
Plaza Towers Elementary School students Monica Boyd and Lavontey Rodriguez sit at the parking lot of their tornado devastated school.
Travis French and his wife, Amy, of Capitol Hill Baptist Church hand out fresh fruit, water and hygiene packs to Thomas and Kelcy Trowbridge.
Teachers from Fairview Elementary School help clean up former school counselor Kay Taylor’s home in south Oklahoma City on May 22, two days after an extremely powerful tornado tore through Moore, Oklahoma. 
Jake English, 12, cleans up retired school counselor Kay Taylor’s home on May 22 in south Oklahoma City, just west of Moore. The storm was part of a tornado outbreak that began in the Midwest and Plains on Sunday, May 19. 
A man talks on his cell phone in front of a destroyed house on May 22.
A man looks through a pile of clothing at a roadside relief camp on May 22 in Moore.
Volunteers form a chain to retrieve clothing and other household items on May 22.
Jon Booth moves a piece of debris from his mother’s destroyed home across the street from Plaza Towers Elementary School on May 22.
Matt Johnson salvages items from his grandparents’ home on Tuesday, May 21.
An aerial view of the destruction on May 21.
The storm, which touched down near Newcastle, Oklahoma, spanned 1.3 miles. Some areas along the path were completely flattened.
Two men fold an American flag found in the debris of a house on May 21 in Moore.
A young girl stands among the rubble outside Briarwood Elementary School on May 21.
A doll covered in dirt is among the rubble scattered throughout a neighborhood in Moore on May 21.
Bonnie Lolofie, left, and Ashley Do carry belongings from their apartment, which has no power, on May 21.
Residents salvage belongings from their demolished homes in Moore on May 21.
Kelli Kannady weeps after finding a box of photographs of her late husband in the rubble near where her home once stood in Moore on May 21.
Tufts of pink insulation hang from the rafters of a store in Moore on May 21 that was destroyed in the storm.
Natalie Johnson searches through her mother’s destroyed car outside Briarwood Elementary School in Moore on May 21.
Rescuers dig out a house in Moore on May 21. 
June Simson embraces her cat Sammi after she found him standing among the rubble of her destroyed home in Moore on May 21.
A man stands on the roof of a destroyed home in Moore on May 21.
A man helps move a resident’s belongings from a destroyed home on May 21 in Moore.
Air Force Airman First Class Justin Acord sifts through the rubble of his father-in-law’s home in Moore on May 21.
People recover belongings from the rubble of a home in Moore.
People sort through a leveled home in Moore on May 21.
Debris lies among headstones in the Moore Cemetery on May 21.
Workers clean up the Warren movie theater in Moore on May 21.
Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett surveys damage in Moore on May 21.
Piles of debris lie around the north side of Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore on May 21.
As dawn breaks, storm clouds roll in over a devastated neighborhood in Moore on May 21.
Members of the Oklahoma National Guard look for survivors in rubble in Moore on May 21.
A National Guardsman assists in the search for victims on May 21. 
A rescue worker leads a horse from the wreckage of a day care center and barns on Monday, May 20, in Moore.
Men tie an American flag on debris in a neighborhood off Telephone Road in Moore on May 20.
Children wait for their parents to arrive at Briarwood Elementary School in south Oklahoma City on May 20.
Teachers carry children away from Briarwood Elementary School on May 20.
Teachers lead children away from Briarwood Elementary School on May 20. Read more about the photo.
A fire official drives through the rubble of Moore Medical Center on May 20.
Abby Madi, left, and Peterson Zatterlee comfort Zatterlee’s dog, Rippy, on Monday, May 20, in Moore.
A woman is treated for her injuries on May 20 at a triage area set up for the wounded.
Two girls stand in rubble in Moore. 
Rescue workers help free one of more than a dozen people who were trapped at a medical center in Moore on May 20.
Oklahoma City firefighters check on Gene Tripp on May 20 as he sits in his rocking chair where his home once stood.
A nurse helps an older man who suffered a head injury on May 20 in Moore.
Cars marked with an orange X, meaning they have been checked for occupants, are piled up in front of the entrance to the damaged Moore Medical Center on May 20.
Jim Routon hugs his neighbor, 7-year-old Hezekiah, after the tornado strikes on May 20. An earlier version of this caption incorrectly stated that Routon was Hezekiah’s teacher. See an interview with the pair. 
People look through the wreckage of their neighborhood after a tornado struck Moore, Oklahoma, on May 20.
Dana Ulepich searches inside a room left standing at the back of her destroyed house in Moore on May 20.
Residents look through the debris in Moore on May 20.
A man looks through the remains of a home after the massive tornado struck Moore on May 20.
A woman is transported on a stretcher after she was rescued from the damaged medical center in Moore on May 20.
A woman walks through debris in Moore on May 20.
A man is taken away from the IMAX Theater in Moore that was used as a triage center on May 20.
A girl wraps herself in a blanket near the Moore Hospital on May 20.
A nurse walks by the destruction at a Moore hospital on May 20.
Destroyed cars scatter the landscape in Moore, Oklahoma, where hundreds of homes and buildings were put to ruin on May 20.
A woman with an arm injury is helped on May 20 in Moore.
Extensive damage from the tornado destroyed cars and demolished structures in Moore on May 20.
Onlookers stop to view a portion of the destruction left behind on May 20 in Moore.
Overturned cars are among the rubble from the tornado that hit Moore on May 20.
A woman is comforted after the May 20 tornado in Moore.
A shredded tree stands amid debris in the aftermath of the storm in Moore on May 20.
A shopping center parking lot is covered with debris and damaged cars on May 20.
Law enforcement officers block a roadway in Moore where there was extensive damage from the tornado.
A massive tornado approaches Moore on May 20. The storm first touched down to the west of the city near Newcastle, Oklahoma. Visit CNN.com/impact for ways to help the victims.
Carol Kawaykla holds a picture of her mother she found in the rubble of her tornado-devastated home in Moore, Oklahoma, on Friday, May 24. View more photos of the aftermath in the region and another gallery of aerial shots of the damage.
The sun sets over debris from houses littering the ground in Moore, Oklahoma, on Thursday, May 23, three days after the town was damaged by a tornado. 
Debris is scattered across a driveway on May 23. Severe thunderstorms barreled through this Oklahoma City suburb at dawn Thursday, complicating cleanup efforts.
Lightning strikes during a thunderstorm as people search for items that can be saved from their devastated home on May 23.
A devastated neighborhood is seen on May 23 in Moore.
A woman searches for belongings at a home on May 22 in Moore.
Michael Pritz swings a golf club while taking a break from helping his friend to salvage belongings on May 22.
Debris litters what remains of a classroom at Plaza Towers Elementary School on May 22. Seven children died at the school in Monday’s tornado.
A makeshift shelter stands next to a home destroyed by the tornado on May 22.
Casey Angle walks on the bunk bed she shared with her sister Sydney, who was among the students killed at Plaza Towers Elementary School during the tornado.
Tara McDonald shows some items salvaged from her home on May 22.
A swing set sits warped at Plaza Towers Elementary School on May 22. 
Plaza Towers Elementary School students Monica Boyd and Lavontey Rodriguez sit at the parking lot of their tornado devastated school.
Travis French and his wife, Amy, of Capitol Hill Baptist Church hand out fresh fruit, water and hygiene packs to Thomas and Kelcy Trowbridge.
Teachers from Fairview Elementary School help clean up former school counselor Kay Taylor’s home in south Oklahoma City on May 22, two days after an extremely powerful tornado tore through Moore, Oklahoma. 
Jake English, 12, cleans up retired school counselor Kay Taylor’s home on May 22 in south Oklahoma City, just west of Moore. The storm was part of a tornado outbreak that began in the Midwest and Plains on Sunday, May 19. 
A man talks on his cell phone in front of a destroyed house on May 22.
A man looks through a pile of clothing at a roadside relief camp on May 22 in Moore.
Volunteers form a chain to retrieve clothing and other household items on May 22.
Jon Booth moves a piece of debris from his mother’s destroyed home across the street from Plaza Towers Elementary School on May 22.
Matt Johnson salvages items from his grandparents’ home on Tuesday, May 21.
An aerial view of the destruction on May 21.
The storm, which touched down near Newcastle, Oklahoma, spanned 1.3 miles. Some areas along the path were completely flattened.
Two men fold an American flag found in the debris of a house on May 21 in Moore.
A young girl stands among the rubble outside Briarwood Elementary School on May 21.
A doll covered in dirt is among the rubble scattered throughout a neighborhood in Moore on May 21.
Bonnie Lolofie, left, and Ashley Do carry belongings from their apartment, which has no power, on May 21.
Residents salvage belongings from their demolished homes in Moore on May 21.
Kelli Kannady weeps after finding a box of photographs of her late husband in the rubble near where her home once stood in Moore on May 21.
Tufts of pink insulation hang from the rafters of a store in Moore on May 21 that was destroyed in the storm.
Natalie Johnson searches through her mother’s destroyed car outside Briarwood Elementary School in Moore on May 21.
Rescuers dig out a house in Moore on May 21. 
June Simson embraces her cat Sammi after she found him standing among the rubble of her destroyed home in Moore on May 21.
A man stands on the roof of a destroyed home in Moore on May 21.
A man helps move a resident’s belongings from a destroyed home on May 21 in Moore.
Air Force Airman First Class Justin Acord sifts through the rubble of his father-in-law’s home in Moore on May 21.
People recover belongings from the rubble of a home in Moore.
People sort through a leveled home in Moore on May 21.
Debris lies among headstones in the Moore Cemetery on May 21.
Workers clean up the Warren movie theater in Moore on May 21.
Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett surveys damage in Moore on May 21.
Piles of debris lie around the north side of Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore on May 21.
As dawn breaks, storm clouds roll in over a devastated neighborhood in Moore on May 21.
Members of the Oklahoma National Guard look for survivors in rubble in Moore on May 21.
A National Guardsman assists in the search for victims on May 21. 
A rescue worker leads a horse from the wreckage of a day care center and barns on Monday, May 20, in Moore.
Men tie an American flag on debris in a neighborhood off Telephone Road in Moore on May 20.
Children wait for their parents to arrive at Briarwood Elementary School in south Oklahoma City on May 20.
Teachers carry children away from Briarwood Elementary School on May 20.
Teachers lead children away from Briarwood Elementary School on May 20. Read more about the photo.
A fire official drives through the rubble of Moore Medical Center on May 20.
Abby Madi, left, and Peterson Zatterlee comfort Zatterlee’s dog, Rippy, on Monday, May 20, in Moore.
A woman is treated for her injuries on May 20 at a triage area set up for the wounded.
Two girls stand in rubble in Moore. 
Rescue workers help free one of more than a dozen people who were trapped at a medical center in Moore on May 20.
Oklahoma City firefighters check on Gene Tripp on May 20 as he sits in his rocking chair where his home once stood.
A nurse helps an older man who suffered a head injury on May 20 in Moore.
Cars marked with an orange X, meaning they have been checked for occupants, are piled up in front of the entrance to the damaged Moore Medical Center on May 20.
Jim Routon hugs his neighbor, 7-year-old Hezekiah, after the tornado strikes on May 20. An earlier version of this caption incorrectly stated that Routon was Hezekiah’s teacher. See an interview with the pair. 
People look through the wreckage of their neighborhood after a tornado struck Moore, Oklahoma, on May 20.
Dana Ulepich searches inside a room left standing at the back of her destroyed house in Moore on May 20.
Residents look through the debris in Moore on May 20.
A man looks through the remains of a home after the massive tornado struck Moore on May 20.
A woman is transported on a stretcher after she was rescued from the damaged medical center in Moore on May 20.
A woman walks through debris in Moore on May 20.
A man is taken away from the IMAX Theater in Moore that was used as a triage center on May 20.
A girl wraps herself in a blanket near the Moore Hospital on May 20.
A nurse walks by the destruction at a Moore hospital on May 20.
Destroyed cars scatter the landscape in Moore, Oklahoma, where hundreds of homes and buildings were put to ruin on May 20.
A woman with an arm injury is helped on May 20 in Moore.
Extensive damage from the tornado destroyed cars and demolished structures in Moore on May 20.
Onlookers stop to view a portion of the destruction left behind on May 20 in Moore.
Overturned cars are among the rubble from the tornado that hit Moore on May 20.
A woman is comforted after the May 20 tornado in Moore.
A shredded tree stands amid debris in the aftermath of the storm in Moore on May 20.
A shopping center parking lot is covered with debris and damaged cars on May 20.
Law enforcement officers block a roadway in Moore where there was extensive damage from the tornado.
A massive tornado approaches Moore on May 20. The storm first touched down to the west of the city near Newcastle, Oklahoma. Visit CNN.com/impact for ways to help the victims.
