Who Is Hayden Kennedy? Climber Kills Self Day After Girlfriend Died In Avalanche

A renowned climber killed himself a day after he survived an avalanche that killed his girlfriend at Imp Peak in Bozeman, Montana. Hayden Kennedy, 27, was skiing with girlfriend Inge Perkins, 23, Saturday when they triggered an avalanche.

Kennedy, hailed as one of the world’s greatest alpinists, was partially buried and managed to dig himself out but his girlfriend Perkins, an avid climber and ski mountaineer, was buried 3 feet under the avalanche measuring 150 feet by 300 feet, the Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office said.

Kennedy, who had recently moved to Bozeman to work towards his EMT certification, was found dead in a home Sunday as search teams prepared to recover Perkins' body.

"Hayden survived the avalanche but not the unbearable loss of his partner in life," his parents wrote in a statement released Tuesday. They described their son as "an uncensored soul whose accomplishments as a mountaineer were always secondary to his deep friendships and mindfulness."

Doug Chabot, of the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center, told Outside Magazine that Kennedy left a note with “incredibly clear directions for where to find her” in lieu of calling 911.

Just two weeks before Kennedy killed himself, he wrote on a climbing blog that he had watched too many friends die in the mountains over the last few years.

“Over the last few years, as I’ve watched too many friends go to the mountains only to never return, I’ve realized something painful,” he wrote for the "Evening Sends" blog. “It’s not just the memorable summits and crux moves that are fleeting. Friends and climbing partners are fleeting, too. 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…I see both light and dark in climbing. Through this recognition, true learning begins and a full awareness of the brevity of our time becomes clearer. It’s difficult to accept the fact that we cannot control everything in life, yet we still try, and maybe our path changes to something totally unexpected…Maybe the most genuine aspects of any tale are the sputterings and the silences, the acknowledgments of failure, the glimmerings in the dark. And maybe one genuine reason to try to share our stories about days we actually send something, when we are alive and at the height of our powers, is to try to bring back what’s past, lost, or gone. Perhaps by doing so, we might find some light illuminating a new way forward.”

Kennedy was best known for climbing the Southeast Ridge in Patagonia's Cerro Torre in 2012 and removing many of the bolts placed by controversial Italian climber Cesare Maestri more than 40 years earlier.

Kennedy's father, Michael Kennedy, who was editor of Climbing Magazine for more than two decades, was always proud of his son's achievements.

"You made a courageous first step in restoring Cerro Torre to its rightful place as one of the most demanding and inaccessible summits in the world," the elder Kennedy wrote in an open letter to his son that was published in Alpinist Magazine in 2012. "I never would have had the guts to take that step myself, even in my best days."

Michael, an accomplished mountaineer in his own right, also wrote to his son about losing multiple friends to the sport.

"An awareness of mortality prompts us to focus on what's important: developing a strong community of family and friends," he wrote.