Hayden Kennedy

Hayden Kennedy (1990 to 2017) was an American rock climber and mountaineer whose ascents ranged across North America, Patagonia and the Himalayas. He was the son of the writer and mountaineer Michael Kennedy. In 2012 he and his partner Jason Kruk made a "fair means" ascent of the Compressor Route on Cerro Torre in Patagonia, removing the bolt ladders left on the first ascent, an act that caused local controversy and an international debate on bolting ethics. With Kyle Dempster and Josh Wharton he made the alpine style first ascent of the south face of the Ogre in the Karakoram, which won the Piolet d'Or in 2013, and he won it again in 2016 for Light Before Wisdom on Cerro Kishtwar in India. His free climbing included El Nino on El Capitan and the Indian Creek route Carbondale Short Bus, and he wrote for Alpinist and Rock & Ice magazines. He died in October 2017.