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RFK Arrives at Mt. Kennedy in Yukon Territory

Mar. 22, 1965 - Senator Robert F. Kennedy arrived at Mount Kennedy in the Yukon Territory today by Royal Canadian Air Force helicopter.

The Senator hopes to be the first man to reach the top of 13,900-foot Mount Kennedy, named after his brother, President Kennedy.

The helicopter brought the New York Senator from Whitehorse, 150 miles to the northeast.

Kennedy planned to spend the night at a base camp, at an altitude of 8,500 feet, and start up the glacier slope tomorrow.

It is expected that it will take about five hours to reach the second camp, at 11,000 feet, where Kennedy plans to spend tomorrow night.

Weather permitting, he should reach the top sometime Wednesday.

The Senator had been delayed on his arrival in Whitehorse for more than an hour because of reports of low clouds over the Mount Kennedy region. But at his insistence, a plane was sent ahead to keep watch on the weather and report any breaks in the clouds.

“If we get to the mountain, we’ll get up it one way or another,” Kennedy said. “If we wait here, we could be stuck for two weeks.”

The Senator also indicated that he was eager to reach the mountain today because it was 16 months ago that his brother was assassinated.

Kennedy will make his ascent up the south side of Mount Kennedy as part of a three-man team, headed by James Whittaker, a 36-year-old mountain climber who in 1963 was the first American to scale Mount Everest. The other member will be James Craig of Vancouver, a Canadian mountain climber.

Mount Kennedy is 25 miles north of the Yukon-British Columbia line, within Canada just east of the Alaskan border.

“I hate heights,” Kennedy said today. “But I’m getting braver now. I’ve been up Everest three times in my mind.”

From the moment Kennedy arrived in Seattle last night, there had been tight security precautions after an anonymous telephone caller reported a threat on his life. The threat was made to the FBI in Denver.

As the Senator landed in Juneau, a police helicopter hovered low over the runway, and a heavy police detail was stationed around the airport. There were no incidents. 

The Senator refused to discuss why he was making the trip, other than to say “because the mountain is named after President Kennedy.”His wife, Ethel, said in a telephone interview: “I think he wants to take his mind off the fact that he’s not an astronaut.”



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