Carbondale, climbers mourning the loss of man whose partner died in avalanche
Hayden Kennedy, 27, one of North America’s most gifted alpinists and the son of rock climbing royalty, penned a column for a climbing blog two weeks ago.
Lamenting the recent loss of friends in climbing accidents, the Carbondale native wrote of a painful realization.
“It’s not just the memorable summits and crux moves that are fleeting. Friends and climbing partners are fleeting, too,” he wrote. “This is the painful reality of our sport, and I’m unsure what to make of it. Climbing is either a beautiful gift or a curse.”
On Saturday, Kennedy and his girlfriend Inge Perkins, 23, were skinning up a couloir on Imp Peak south of their new home in Bozeman, Mont., when they were caught in an avalanche.
Perkins, an equally illustrious climber, was buried and did not survive. Kennedy was partially buried and searched for his partner. Eventually he hiked out for help, according to an initial report by the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center.
The next day, as rescuers prepared to search for Perkins, Kennedy took his own life.
Kennedy’s father, alpinist Michael Kennedy on Tuesday wrote on Facebook: “Hayden survived the avalanche but not the unbearable loss of his partner in life. He chose to end his life.”
Michael Kennedy wrote that he and his wife, Julie, “sorrowfully respect his decision.”
Kennedy and Perkins recently moved to Bozeman where he was working on his EMT certificate and she was completing her bachelor’s degree in math and education at Montana State University, his family said.
Although Kennedy was considered among the very best climbers in the world, he also was an insightful writer whose thoughtful climbing stories and slideshow presentations at shops and theaters beguiled audiences. It all sprang from a childhood spent on rock, climbing with his mom and dad, who was the editor of Climbing magazine for more than 25 years.
In 2012, Kennedy joined Jason Kruk in a mission on the daunting Southeast Ridge in Cerro Torre.
The ascent — a free-climbing first, meaning he and Kruk did not use many of the bolts installed in 1970 by a controversial Italian climber who left a gaspowered compressor on the route named Compressor — harvested international acclaim. But it was their decision to cut more than 100 of the bolts that ignited a firestorm.
When Kennedy and Kruk arrived at the village of El Chalten after their audacious ascent, they were accosted by locals and arrested.
“We wanted to give respect back to Cerro Torre,” an unapologetic Kennedy said at the 2012 5Point Film Festival, founded by his mother Julie, clicking through his Cerro Torre photos showing groups of 10 or more bolts in a single frame. “There’s never been democracy in climbing. It’s kind of a rebel sport. Climbing is the art of freedom.”
Kennedy defended his boltchopping, arguing he returned the peak to its rightfully challenging state.
“We should rise to the occasion to climb Cerro Torre,” he said.
Despite his reputation, Kennedy was a social media recluse — no Facebook Instagram or Twitter, a rarity among professional athletes whose sponsors pay for exposure.
In his late September post on the climbing website eveningsends.com, he said he’d “never been a goal-oriented climber so I don’t really see the point in recording my climbs or hyping them up.”
Instead of crowing about climbing, Kennedy said true meaning on his chosen path in the mountains “is found in the friendships and partnerships that we build while pursuing our climbing goals.”
The climbing world roiled Tuesday on news that two of its brightest lights were lost.
“To say Hayden was a talented climber would be an understatement. To say he was one of the world’s best climbers is closer to the truth, yet even those words fall flat,” reads a Tuesday post by his sponsor, Utah-based Black Diamond. “He was, with all intents and purposes, a climber who transcended barriers.”