Update: Climbers Hayden Kennedy and Inge Perkins Dead In First Avalanche Fatalities of Season

Inge Perkins and Hayden Kennedy, from Perkins' Instagram account.

According to Montana Avalanche, an avalanche claimed the life of a skier in in the Madison Range on Saturday.  The slide fully buried one and partially buried another on the North Couloir of Imp Peak. The skiers were approaching their line when the avalanche triggered from above. Gallatin County SAR responded to the scene. Out of respect for the families, the names of the skiers have not been released yet. We will update with further details.

Update:

Hayden Kennedy, the 27-year-old climber and skier famous for mountaineering feats like his first fair-means ascent of Patagonia’s Cerro Torre is dead following an avalanche in Montana’s Madison Range on Saturday. According to MT Avalanche, the slide fully buried and killed his partner Inge Perkins and partially buried him on the North Couloir of Imp Peak. Distraught after failing to rescue her, he took his own life. 

To Kennedy, the mountains were most of all a place to go out and have fun. While one of the most accomplished alpinists of his generation, his friends and climbing partners remember him as the one who never took the silly sport of climbing too seriously, yet still managed to get out and crush some of the hardest climbs in the world. Notable ascents include Cerro Torre, where he and climbing partner Jason Kruk removed the majority of the controversial bolt ladder placed in 1970 by Cesare Maestre on the Compressor Route. Outside of Patagonia, Kennedy first-ascented huge walls in Mexico and pioneered routes in the Karakoram and Himalaya, but most of all loved climbing near his home in Colorado with friends.

Our condolences go out to all those close with Kennedy and Perkins. The mountain community will miss you.