RFK Lands in Seattle after Triumphal Climb

Mar. 25, 1965 - Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (D-N.Y.) landed in Seattle today on the first leg of his flight home after a dramatic conquest of the 13,900-foot Yukon mountain named for his later brother, John F. Kennedy.

During the flight from Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, the exhausted Senator revealed that he fell through a crevasse when an ice bridge gave out from under him on Mount Kennedy yesterday when he was about 900 feet from the ice-capped summit.

He dropped through to his chest before the 50-foot rope linking him and James Whittaker (left), the climb leader, slowed the fall, enabling Kennedy to spread his arms across the top of the narrow crevasse. Whittaker pulled him out.

Kennedy revealed also that he removed the flag bearing the Kennedy family crest that he planted on the summit.

“They told me it would disappear within 48 hours,” he explained.

Although pleased with the trip, Kennedy said:“I didn’t really enjoy any part of it, but I can understand why people like climbing. They are a special breed of man. But I have nine children. I don’t think I’ll climb any more mountains, and I think I’ll stay on the first floor of my house from now on.”

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