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Anne-Marie Rizzi
climber
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Terrible news. My condolences to all his loved ones.
Anne-Marie
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F10
Trad climber
e350
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Just got back from a couple days of climbing and saw this bad news!
Tough news to fathom, at a loss for words
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o-man
Trad climber
Paia,Maui,HI
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While paddling my surfboard this morning I had a couple of visions from my past. I was strolling through the camp 4 boulders back in the early seventies and crossing paths with a tall, skinny, ultra fit, blond kid that was the most elegant rock technician that I had met. From that day on I knew what smooth calculated precision on rock was.
As I paddled further, I reminisced the same fellow soulfully playing his saxophone in the camp 4 parking lot next to his open van door. He created a magic mood that will forever be in my quiver of great memories of my time spent in Yosemite Valley.
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Greg Epperson
climber
Joshua Tree
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John at his Foresta house, before the fire of course.
My most prized possessions are a quick-draw I stole from Lynn Hill and a cassette tape John made for me, a compilation of James Brown.
RIP
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Lee_J
Trad climber
Buena Vista, Colorado
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I spy a tiny hold
rest awaits
nothing but air below
my heart beats
I make the move
a smile takes over
I am consumed
joy again in this familiar moment
many don't understand why
I don't care
It's not to live or die
It's to live and dare
Go now John and scare those in Heaven!
-Lee Jenkins
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Fletcher
Trad climber
the end of the world as we know it, & I feel fine.
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That poem is so beautiful Anastasia. Thanks for sharing another aspect of John's beautifully faceted soul.
Eric
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ron gomez
Trad climber
fallbrook,ca
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John and another Yosemite legend Roger Derryberry
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Lynne Leichtfuss
Social climber
valley center, ca
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Well, Mr. Bachar....headed out to watch the sunset and send my thoughts and prayers up for your loved ones and friends. Peace
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Risk
Mountain climber
Olympia, WA
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This untimely passing is an immeasurable loss to the mountaineering universe that brings me great sadness. He was what all of us aspire to be as a person, always full of honor, humor, and goodness. To me, he will always be the best climber in the world.
Thanks John, for being you.
Chris Runner
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klk
Trad climber
cali
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greg--
wow, great, great picture.
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henny
Social climber
The Past
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I just found out about this. The thread titles said it all even before I opened any of them. What a shock. When something tragic and sad like this happens there's just no good way to find out about it.
We have truely lost one of our brightest shining stars.
Best wishes to the family as they deal with this difficult time.
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Blitzo
Social climber
Earth
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Hey, Jaybro, I have a copy of that life issue. Phil's photos were great! How odd that Michael Jackson was on the cover and both their deaths were only 10 days apart. So Sad!
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Fluoride
Trad climber
Hollywood, CA
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I just got back from Tuolumne. Someone e-mailed me and said Bachar died soloing and I thought it was a bad joke until I logged in here.
Holy crap. I'm stunned. It's like this isn't real.
There's climbing legends and then there's Bachar. He was in a class all by himself.
I ran into him in the ORG from time to time. Nice guy and watching him solo down there so effortlessly was amazing to watch.
RIP man. Reardon got a soloing buddy in the great beyond way too soon.
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Fogarty
climber
Back in time..
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To have John Bachar as a mentor was a gift, your spirit will live with us forever (YOU ARE LEGEND) RIP.
Mike Fogarty
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labrat
Trad climber
Nevada, CA
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Sad day...Good thoughts to family and friends.
Erik
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klk
Trad climber
cali
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Largo-- Many thanks for that link. Great spur-of-the-moment writing. This is the crux:
"Thus to watch Bachar was to believe that poise, control and reason were at the heart of climbing well."
Part of the sense that Bachar's death matters is the sense that an era's passing. Many of us could've said that.
As for the "dark side," and the typically British coded language about John's personality and ego, many of us wouldn't have said that.
But that key word, "reason": It seems none of us could have said that. At least not right now. And that's one of the keys to the moment.
For years, many of us who solo have believed that with sufficent control and calculation and care, soloing could be made soli, and for many, many years, I've said that JB on the 3rd was safer than the average intermediate on almost anything.
Not that I always believed it, but it's what I told my loved ones.
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MEDDLE HEAD
Boulder climber
oregon
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SAD DAY FOR ME...JUST WAS TOLD FROM FRIEND JASON KARN OF THE SAD NEWS...WE HAD THE PRIVILEGE TO HANG OUT AND TOUR J.TREE WITH HIM AND SCOTT COSGROVE ...EVEN THOUGH ETHICS WERE A ISSUE SINCE WE WERE SPORT CLIMBERS..HE STILL AND WE STILL SEE BEYOND THE POINTS OF THAT SINCE ALL IN ALL WE WERE CLIMBERS..I SEND OUT MY SORROW TO ALL FAMILY AND FRIENDS..I WISH UPON HIM A GREAT KINGDOM OF VIRGIN ROCK AND HAVE A EVERLASTING CLIMB..
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Phil Bard
Trad climber
Lake Oswego, OR
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I think I speak for many in saying it has been amongst the most difficult of days to be a climber. An indescribably painful loss of not just a living legend, but a real friend to many of us.
Five+Dime 1982
I have spent the better part of today staring at a file containing most of the 3000+ images I took of John over the years, thinking at times that it summed up a large part of his life. I'm wrong probably, but at least for me there are many moments of sheer amazement in those images. Moments that certainly define John to some degree. His finesse and grace. His near perfection of the craft. A feeling, on my part, of great honor at getting to be there.
Dexter Canyon 1988
When I first went out to shoot John soloing in the summer of 1982, I was excited at the prospect of helping him get decent images of what he had been doing. He had showed me some previous photos, taken from the ground below and badly exposed, so I offered to go out the next day with him to Low Profile Dome, rap down and get what I could that way. As I photographed him gliding up some of his regular solos, it struck me that I could very well be present at his death, he needed only to miss one move or have a hold break. It was a stark and terrible thought and I was at moments truly afraid. But after days and months of photographing him on increasingly difficult routes, I realized he was at almost zero risk of falling. Indeed, he was in less danger than many climbers when they are roped, and I just forgot about it.
New Dimensions 1982
It has been painful to sort through that file today. But I know John would want to be remembered in the photographs that he worked so hard to make and would want us to enjoy them. No one was more dedicated than he to getting them right. So here are some familiar ones, and some that have never been seen by anyone besides the two of us. I'll put more up in a second post, and at a later date, as it seems fit.
On an early shoot of On the Lamb, with Fire prototypes that were never put in production. Alongside his chalk bag is a toothbrush and his car key.
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Phil Bard
Trad climber
Lake Oswego, OR
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I always liked the way John looked like a phantom in this image. Fingertips 1986
John loved the reverb effect in the tunnel near his house in Foresta. 1985 for Outside Magazine
Thank God Ledge, with Peter Croft, just after the rainstorm on the first El Cap/Half Dome one-day 1986
An evening jaunt up Rawl Drive
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