SLIDESHOW: Hayden Kennedy's Climbs

Hayden Kennedy, son of renowned mountaineer Michael Kennedy, is making a name for himself and blazing his own trails. [slideshow:569]

As an ambitious climber in the new generation of elite mountaineers, Hayden Kennedy spends his time scaling mountains across the world. In the last year, he finished several commendable climbs. The slideshow shows photos from his expeditions in Argentine Patagonia and Pakistan, as well as a commendable attempt in the Canadian Rockies. 

Argentine Patagonia (Late 2011 – Early 2012)
Kennedy traveled to South America with Jason Kruk of Squamish, BC, for a two-month climbing trip. While in Patagonia, the duo bagged first ascents of very difficult climbs including Cerro Standhart, Torre Egger and Cerro Torre—the peak Italian mountaineer Reinhold Messner famously called "a shriek turned to stone." This was Kennedy's third trip to Patagonia and Kruk's fourth.

Pakistan (Summer 2012)
Kennedy spent the summer in the Middle East, climbing new routes on two 7,000-meter peaks: K7 and The Ogre. The photos come from Kennedy's firsthand account of his expedition with Urban Novak and fellow Black Diamond Athlete Kyle Dempster on K7, a 6,934-meter-high mountain in the Karakoram.

Canadian Rockies (Spring 2011)
The North Face of North Twin in the Canadian Rockies has only been climbed three times in 37 years. After a super sketchy day and night of climbing during their expedition, Kennedy and Kruk were forced to abandon their summit bid. To get off the mountain, the climbers had to traverse "some of the weirdest, scariest snow climbing we'd ever done, with very little protection..." Kennedy wrote in his blog post for Patagonia.

Read more about the Kennedy climbing dynasty in this Q&A with Hayden's dad, Michael.