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On the 1963 American Mount Everest expedition, Jim Whittaker and Sherpa Nawang Gombu reached the summit of Mount Everest on May 1, 1963, using the conventional route via the South Col. This was the first time the summit had been reached by an American. However, on May 22 two other team members also reached the summit, this time taking a route that traversed the mountain by ascending the West Ridge and moving onto the North Face to attain the summit before descending via the Southeast Ridge and the South Col. To traverse a mountain is to go up one side of the mountain and down another and Everest had never been traversed before.[note 1]
The leader of the expedition was Norman Dyhrenfurth who had been the photographer on the 1952 Swiss Mount Everest expedition. At a White House reception for the team when they returned to the United States, he accepted the Hubbard Medal from president John F. Kennedy on behalf of the whole team.
Worldwide, the mountaineering establishment and enthusiasts regarded the traverse via the West Ridge by the Americans Tom Hornbein and Willi Unsoeld as the greater achievement. However, back home in the United States, the main cause for celebration by press, politicians and the public was Whittaker's achievement. In turn this led to a burgeoning of mountaineering in the United States over the following decades.
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