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Bluepell
Mountain climber
L.A., CA
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My deepest condolences to John's Family & Friends & to all those who loved him.
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BASE104
climber
An Oil Field
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I gotta keep this bumped up. It is such a shattering moment.
I remember watching the JT crew soloing like maniacs BITD, and ended up soloing a bunch (starting the next day). Bachar was very influential, and not just about soloing. Maybe one of the last loud voices for style as an end in itself. I was only five years younger, and never made it close to his level, but I could explore the limits of my own meager boundaries thanks to that crowd opening my eyes. I was 18, just led my first 5.10, and I soloed it the next day. I was in total control, so it didn't feel like any big deal.
So when I heard this, even though I never knew him well enough to call him my friend, the news made me feel like I had been hit by an asteroid. Not Bachar. No way.
I had my brushes with him in passing like a lot of us. It was kinda like meeting your hero in a way, but of course that is a little silly. But impossible to ignore as a teenager. There were the others, of course, also pushing things. Kauk comes to mind. It was just a time and space when a number of qualities and personalities intersected in some weird nexus, and caused the standards to make one of those leaps that we see periodically.
He was human like the rest of us. I will miss just knowing that he is still around and breathing.
I give my sympathies to his son and all of you old farts who influenced me as a child and lost a friend.
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sully
Trad climber
CA
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Was outside Tuolumne Meadows store yesterday to find at the center of the bulletin board a John B. poster with "Bacher Lives RIP" on it. Around it were torn slips of paper from climbers seeking partners and gear. So fitting and cool.
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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sully, if you or someone is at the store and can take and post a picture, that would be appreciated.
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Hardman Knott
Gym climber
Muir Woods National Monument, Mill Valley, Ca
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I vividly remember when John first showed up at our little campfire out of the blue with this post:
http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.html?topic_id=123220&msg=124316#msg124316
Prior to that he seemed to be a mythical figure, larger than life and unapproachable.
I never met him, but I got to know him a bit through his posts here and some e-mails.
I don't feel so bad for John himself, as he lived and died by the sword - he understood the risks better than anyone.
But it pains me greatly to think of his family and many friends he has left behind.
Hard to believe he's gone.
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Tahoe Bill
Trad climber
ca
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Im filled with dis belief, and sorrow !
JB has been a inspiration to me and the climbing community for a very long time. It started Way back as a freshman in highschool, when I had a rack full of stoppers and hexes and His poster of soloing outer limits proudly hung up on my bedroom room. Next was a NEW pair of Boreal Boots for x-mas, no more eb's for me! I had on the same shoes as my mentor, that's about as close as I came to climbing like JB!
Over the years it was a hi here and there, or a blank stare from ME as I watch him so gracefully float a hard route at the Cookie or elsewhere, which often times was beyond my leading ability!
He was also so COOL to all how watched, and always inspired me to climb up, to flow with the rock and the experience it was offering!
You my friend will be greatly missed
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Owlman
Trad climber
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I met John at Kern Slabs, above Lake Isabella, southern Sierra, a really long time ago...
I was young and a total newb. His climbing had inspired me more than anyone else in the climbing community at that time. So there I was, up on the slabs, soloing routes, ...and up the trail comes Bachar. He looked at my shoes (EBs) and said,
"hey, how's it going? you really should try MY SHOES, they have this crazy new rubber, I think you'll dig them".
So he took off his shoes and I put them on.
They were way too big for me. Huge. I could not even come close to filling them.
I looked like a cartoon character.
But I was determined to wear THE MAN'S shoes!
I couldn't believe how sticky they were and I felt like a spider.
So he and I bouldered around the base of the wall, then moved down to the lower valley along the Kern River and bouldered together...taking turns wearing his shoes.
He was so cool to me...just as you hope your mentors will be, but really rarely do they live up to it all.
Well, my stoke has lasted for over 30 years. I turned 50 this year. I'm still like that young man he met, still fired up to climb. Grabbing each day as it comes, and driving my truck like I stole it.
Thanks John for being so good to me just when I needed it.
I can see you loaning your shoes and getting people stoked in that place out there where I can't yet follow.
Rest in peace. My heart aches for his family.
-willey
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mcreel
climber
Barcelona, Spain
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I already wrote a message with my personal feelings earlier. I just wanted to report that John's passing has had a big effect on the climbing community here in Spain, especially among the people around his age. Some of them knew him from his Boreal connection. He really had a big effect on climbing in Europe, getting people to quit pulling on gear and to try to climb free. Here in Spain people have the route Chasin' the Trane in Frankenjura as a reference.
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Jorge
climber
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I'm very saddened to hear of John's death. Damn, but living life is dangerous! and yet he was particularly good at living life. I know nothing of his family but can only imagine their pain. They have my heartfelt sympathy.
George Meyers
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Stephanie Bussell
Sport climber
Bishop Ca
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Remembering John
The Climbing; Yosemite, JT, Dexter Canyon, The Gorge, Mammoth
FA's, Bouldering, Bolt chopping and speed lowering
The Saxaphone: Funk, Rap and Jazz
The Crazy Car Rides: thru Yosemite, the back raods of JT, dirt roads of the east side, the hill @ Deadmans 3
Encouraging me to be a nurse, just like his brother, how I hated those math problems
The Wooding, Bachar Style, giant pinons crashing to the ground
The Cleaning: Foresta, Joshua Tree and Mammoth
Babysitting Tyrus as a small boy, seeing him now as a talented young man, so much like his dad
All those other girlfriends, so many heartaches
He Was and Always Will Be, The Love of My Life
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Brian Biega
climber
Truckee, CA
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Condolences to all John's friends and family.
John- Thanks for all that you have provided for us to enjoy. You, your climbs, your style, music, adventure, stories... will be missed. The history you have left behind will last forever... All the best in the your life ahead!
Cheers! Brian
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steelmnkey
climber
Vision man...ya gotta have vision...
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"hey, how's it going? you really should try MY SHOES, they have this crazy new rubber, I think you'll dig them".
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Bruce Morris
Social climber
Belmont, California
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As the English Romantic poet Shelley wrote in his elegy on the death of John Keats:
"Die if thou would be with what thou seekest:
Life like a dome of many coloured glass
Stains the white radiance of eternity"
Like John Keats, John Bachar was the spirit of the age.
We all lived in Bachar's shadow.
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shut up and pull
climber
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Three days to reflect on John's death. Still stunned and depressed. A true artist has been lost. He did so well what others did groveling.
Wish he was still here. Damn.
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Lynne Leichtfuss
Social climber
valley center, ca
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shutupandpull...."still stunned and depressed"......yeah !
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chez
Social climber
chicago ill
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Someone just left a music message on my answering machine, couldn't place it but i think it was a Miles davis' track. Trane would have been more fitting but i'll take Davis.
Thanks, whoever it was that left it, (Russell, Keith , or Prunes, maybe) Put a smile on my face thats for sure.
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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That's a great post Scott.
Some of the very things that make a man great can also make him seem difficult.
Bachar is like a classic mountain, steep on all sides. Potentially challenging to approach, you have to come to the mountain.
I respect that, but also deeply appreciate in recent years, John became more assessable and helpful to more than the Elite. His utter concern and Love for Tyrus was notable and his remarks about relationships were so sincere and full of Good faith.
Being more human is just as tall as being a better climber.
Doing so when you are a Titan and Legend, just makes it a grander feat.
Peace
Karl
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Thank you to everyone for the stories, photos and memories. It helps. I've been working on a story, but it's not ready yet.
The New York Times is carrying an obituary of John tomorrow.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/09/sports/09bachar.html?hpw
The Associated Press, a world-wide news wire, also has something:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jj4yj37U9DWYfLMh8iNpt2MokknAD99AL1G04
I've been following coverage of John's death in the news media. There are about 40 googlenews links so far, although not so many actual stories. A lot seem to be local and regional California papers picking up from what was in the Los Angeles Times. But it's pretty clear that to a greater or lesser extent the mainstream media is getting information about John and what happened from the threads on SuperTopo. That, and consideration for John's family, suggest that we should continue to take care as to what we say here, and how we say it.
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