World-class climber dies by suicide after girlfriend dies in Montana avalanche

[Tennis]

https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2...avalanche.html

The avalanche broke loose from Imp Peak, a rushing wall of snow — two-feet high at the vertical crown and 150-feet across — slipping quickly along the older dense accumulation.

The hard slab slammed down into the gully on the mountain’s side, stretching for 300 feet over the dark rock outcroppings, burying two young backcountry skiers Saturday at 10,000 feet above sea level, six miles from the trail head and 20 miles southwest of Big Sky, Montana.

Hayden Kennedy, a 27-year-old world-class climber, fought his way out from the pileup. But he could not find his girlfriend, 23-year-old Inge Perkins.

A report released Tuesday by the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center says Kennedy searched, then trekked out of the area for help. On Monday, rescuers discovered Perkins’ body beneath three feet of snow.

But the tragedy unfortunately didn’t stop on the wind-ripped side of the Madison Range’s fourth highest peak. On Sunday, as searchers were mustering to locate the missing skier, Kennedy took his own life.

This week, his father, Michael Kennedy, confirmed his son’s death.

“Hayden survived the avalanche but not the unbearable loss of his partner in life,” the father wrote on Facebook. “He chose to end his life. Myself and his mother Julie sorrowfully respect his decision.”

The gravity of both losses is pulling particularly hard on the world of professional mountain climbers, globe-trotting alpinists, and extreme outdoors-people. Both Kennedy and Perkins were renowned climbers with corporate sponsorship and followings.

Kennedy was a climbing wunderkind who had pulled himself to the top of some of the globe’s most demanding peaks. The son of prominent members of the climbing scene, in 2014 Elevation Outdoors dubbed him “the best young climber on the planet.”

Despite his age, Kennedy had scraped up enough mountainsides to understand his chosen lifestyle was a tricky balancing act between daredevil risk and safe respect for the threats and challenges of the natural world.

“I see both light and dark in climbing,” he wrote in September on the website Evening Sends. “I have watched too many friends head into hills without thought or reason just because that’s what they have always known. I have been guilty of this approach, too. Why do some of us survive and others don’t?”

Kennedy grew up in Carbondale, a Colorado mountain town. His mother, Julie, was the founder of the 5Point Film Festival, an annual event for outdoor and adventure-related films. His father Michael was an acclaimed alpinist who also worked as the editor in chief of Climbing magazine for 30 years.

“I started climbing a lot at 13, 14,” Hayden Kennedy told Elevation Outdoors in 2014. “I grew up climbing with my dad when I was super young. But I wasn’t that into it. Then as a teenager, I did more sport and trad climbing.”

With climbing such a part of his family life, Kennedy was naturally pulled to the sport — despite his mother’s concern over the risks.

“Do you remember when she told me that if I ever taught you to ice climb, she’d kill me?” Michael Kennedy wrote to his son in an open letter published in 2012 on Aplinist.com . “She figured that ice climbing was the gateway drug to alpinism. Fortunately, you learned it on your own.”

In an essay last September, Hayden Kennedy explained how he educated himself to climb:

“I spent my entire youth reading everything about our sport’s history that I could get my hands on, not to mention discussing the nuances of climbing’s ethics with my dad, a former world-class alpinist, and all of his fellow world-class alpinist buddies when they’d come through town. More importantly, I’ve tried to make opinions about climbing ethics based on firsthand experiences — not through internet forums. That seems to be a rare thing these days.”

After graduating high school, Kennedy opted not to go to college, but hit the road to climb. Self-effacing and humble, with what one friend later described as a “hang-loose sincerity,” the young climber was unlike many of the high-profile names in the sport, who seemed obsessed with documenting their adventures on social media.

“I’ve never been a goal-oriented climber so I don’t really see the point in recording my climbs or hyping them up,” he wrote in September. “I don’t hashtag on Instagram. And I’m not on Facebook. I guess that makes me a sh-y Millennial.”

But his climbs caught attention. Among his many achievements, he climbed a new route up K7 in Pakistan, where he also trekked up the Orge of the Baintha Brakk.

Most infamously, in 2012, Kennedy and a partner climbed the southeast ridge of Cerro Torre on the border between Chile and Argentina. The mountain had originally been climbed in 1970 by mountaineer Cesare Maestri, who installed bolts into the rock face for an easier assent. On their way down, Kennedy and his partner tore out the bolts, a defiant gesture to restore the mountain to its natural condition.

What do you make of this high profile incident?

I'm not a fan of these mountain climbers who put their life at risk for a sport. If you really want to be daring then go be an aid worker or work as a peacekeeper.

[Jakexe]

Guy lived his life as he saw fit. He's a hero in my eyes.

Why do you hate freedom so much?

[callipygoustp]

Tenni, you should write their families a letter to inform them of how you feel about it. I'm sure they would appreciate it.

[IIamaKing]

https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2...avalanche.html



What do you make of this high profile incident?

I'm not a fan of these mountain climbers who put their life at risk for a sport. If you really want to be daring then go be an aid worker or work as a peacekeeper.

Its their life to risk.

I cant even begin to fathom how you pick the pieces up after something like this. Move on w/o blaming yourself for getting your love killed.....

[the game]

tennis players put their lives at risk for a sport. They could easily get hit in the head with a tennis ball and suffer a concussion. Or they could trip and hit their head. I hate it when they risk their lives for a sport.

[ParanoiD84]

His choice to end his life, i can understand if he didnt want to live without her.

[Tennis]

tennis players put their lives at risk for a sport. They could easily get hit in the head with a tennis ball and suffer a concussion. Or they could trip and hit their head. I hate it when they risk their lives for a sport.

What..the rate of dying from playing tennis competitively is minuscule. Not the same.

[the game]

What..the rate of dying from playing tennis competitively is minuscule. Not the same.

They could also have a heart attack from keeping their heart rates up the whole game.

[Jakexe]

What..the rate of dying from playing tennis competitively is minuscule. Not the same.

We only reply to questions that we have a response for it seems?

Sounds like the mountain climber was more of a man than you'll ever be.

[zlygork]

What..the rate of dying from playing tennis competitively is minuscule. Not the same.

What about football players? I know of a guy that recently sued my university because of a concussion basically ruining his life, except he has to live the rest of the 70ish years of life he's got left like a half-vedgetable.
I don't disagree it is silly from my perspective risking your life for sports (mountain climbing is not unique in this at all, it just makes for nicer stories on the media), but to each their own.

[Mormolyce]

That's a fucking terrible story.

[Garnier Fructis]

Some people are willing to risk it all to pursue their dreams or passion. As long as they aren't hurting others by doing so, who are you to judge them?

[MisterBigglez]

Kind of selfish for the guy to just end his life when he had family who loved him, even if his parents respected his decision

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Guy lived his life as he saw fit. He's a hero in my eyes.

I wouldn't go as far as calling him a hero personally

[Bathory]

Kind of selfish for the guy to just end his life

I'll never understand this "selfish" label when this kinda thing happens.

[the game]

Kind of selfish for the guy to just end his life when he had family who loved him, even if his parents respected his decision

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I wouldn't go as far as calling him a hero personally

wouldn't it also be selfish for the family to want the guy to stick around while in torment the rest of his life so they don't feel bad?

[Jakexe]

Kind of selfish for the guy to just end his life when he had family who loved him, even if his parents respected his decision

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I wouldn't go as far as calling him a hero personally

He lived his life according to himself till the end. That's more than most people accomplish. While a stranger to me, he's still a grown man who made a decision harder than anything 90% of people will ever have to face, I respect that.

[Rukario]

If there is such thing as a next life...i hope he just takes his gilfriend to the movies, or to do anything sane people do.

[Dys]

I'll never understand this "selfish" label when this kinda thing happens.

It only makes sense if you consider your life as "owed" to the one's who "created" it.

For anyone capable of free thought, they aren't bound by such simplistic views, even if they choose to fall in line with it.

[Miyagie]

Tenni, you should write their families a letter to inform them of how you feel about it. I'm sure they would appreciate it.

But we are his family <3

[Milchshake]

Avalanches are one of the biggest killers for climbers moreso for backcountry skiers.. Always best to avoid those areas especially during big temperature swings during the Fall and Spring.