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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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Amelia Rudolph
Trad climber
Kensington
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It was 1989 when at Low Profile Dome in Tuolumne a curly blonde super fit guy walked up with a small boom box and proceeded to solo every route around us almost as performance. I was especially interested in his elegance and strange footwork. He was standing on the tops of his toes, as a dancer would in point shoes. I asked him why he was doing that and he said it was because he was experimenting and of course because it was fun.
Over the years, though I did not know John well, I have been inspired by him and enjoyed talking with him-particularly about art and music. He was truly a legend and defined California climbing in so many ways. He will be missed. My condolences to Tyrus and to so many of his friends. -Amelia
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Scrunch
Trad climber
Provo, Ut
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i have no words.
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k-man
Gym climber
SCruz
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Ghetto Blaster blaring.
If I have to put up with your rap bolting, then you're gonna have to put up with my rap music.
Nothing better than when John called out for more funk.
Get funky bro.
The King is Dead.
Long live the King.
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NewtMan
Trad climber
Redondo Beach, CA
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Quite a blow to realize one of my heroes is gone. A year younger than John, I grew up climbing at Stoney Point and remember the inspiring influence he had on many of us. My thoughts and prayers are with him and his family.
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crackedribs
Trad climber
Portland, OR
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My thoughts are with your family. One of the most inspirational climbers ever to grace the lifestyle.
Peace
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Frickers
Big Wall climber
Westchester, CA
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When my husband came home from the gym and told me of the loss we were both super sad.
John is and was one of the few people I had known about from the climbing world before I met my husband. I began rock-climbing at the Westchester YMCA. I kept it up for a while going to Stoney Point if and when I could find a ride. I was always impressed with the handsome blond guy who would climb without ropes. They called him Spiderman. I did not know then that he was a Westchester local. When I went to collage at UCSC we climbed C dorm at Merrill Collage for lack of better local climbing. It wasn't until I met and married Ki Bum Lee (a Stone masters influenced, Yosemite diehard big wall climber from Korea) 8 years ago, that my brother-in-law told me John Bachar went to Westchester High with him. He played tennis with John's brother. He remembers watching when John decided to free solo the JC Penny building in Westchester. Creating a commotion both with police and fire. I couldn't feel more proud that such a huge climbing persona had been a local boy. On July 4th they had the local hometown Parade and they mentioned the 1960s band the Turtles from Westchester High, and I thought yea… but what about John Bachar.
My husband and I got a chance to meet him and talk with him a couple of years ago after a slide show at Santa Monica REI. Shortly after the car accident. I think the audience all knew each other. Proving that no matter how big L.A. is, or any other town, or the world, the climbing community is in some ways intimate. After the slide show he was very relaxed and friendly…( we were at home). He was and will always be one of US. We will keep your memory alive but your presence will be sorely missed!
Heart felt condolences to family and friends!
Lynne & kibum
http://www.koreanclimbingclub.com/gallery/content.asp?name=gallery&id=428
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Ray-J
Social climber
cali
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I'm completely shattered...
Wonder if JB knew how much people loved him?
God this is unreal...
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BG
Trad climber
JTree & Idyllwild
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I’m saddened by the news. Condolences to his son and family.
To those of us that knew him, the memories of the time we spent with John will live on. He was naturally gifted, with superstar athleticism, and for a period in his life of over a decade, was, in my book, the best rock climber in the world. He trained harder than anyone. He dedicated himself wholly to the sport. No one had smoother or purer technique. He was the one to emulate. He had a great sense of humor, sharp intellect, and a musical soul.
He was a gifted teacher, and taught many the fine points of technique. You could learn great lessons just by watching him climb, or by tying into the same rope with him.
To those that never met him, the tales of his climbs will become the stuff of legend, and he will reside in the pantheon of the greatest of all time. His flame burned brighter and more intensely than the rest of us, but was extinguished, sadly, all too soon. May God be with him.
Rest in peace, John.
Bob Gaines
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BG
Trad climber
JTree & Idyllwild
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BG
Trad climber
JTree & Idyllwild
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jstan
climber
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Ray J raises the point I think we all need to take away from this.
"Wonder if JB knew how much people loved him?"
It never even occurred to him, nor did it to us.
As Joni Mitchell said, "You don't know what you got till it's gone."
But it goes far deeper than this. We Americans have the most annoying
habit of thinking only in terms of "more" and "most." This is a very serious
weakness.
We are like a piece of cloth. Every thread counts. Break one and sooner or later
it will all be lost. It is this which limits what the climbing community can
achieve.
We have the training, the courage, and the desire to do anything and
everything.
But our choice to think this way limits us to 5.1.
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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"Wonder if JB knew how much people loved him?"
John was well aware of the respect and position he held in the climbing community.
"Love" is trickier since we don't always know how to give, receive or recognize it. We have complicated relationships with "Love"
That's where I think Tyrus and John's relationship was a blessing. Exploring Love close up and then sharing with the community.
PEace
Karl
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KJM
Social climber
Memphis
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And to think, On Sunday I picked up Largo's book, Jungle Monsoon, after year's on the shelf and read "The Only Blashphemy" about a day of soloing with Bachar.
Bachar was one of my heroes during my short climbing career - and while I never followed his handholds into a serious climbing career, his and others' lust for life inspired me to chuck it all and spend a year mt biking through South America.
Thanks!
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EP
Social climber
Way Out There
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jstan got me thinking about warp and weft.
I noticed the words "love supreme' in the first line of this excerpt and found it very fitting:
But the love of the soul is love supreme. It is love in our spiritual essence and of our eternal belonging. In this deep love we ascend above our emotions – how we feel, what’s troubling us – and into the realm of mystical, non-material essence, the realm of the ecstatic.
For in our souls, we are all warp and weft of the one great seamless cloth, woven together of all that we have been, all that we shall be – our victories and majesties and sorrows, our tragedies and grand heroic moments. In the soul’s love we sense far within us, as if written in faint, faded ink on the ancient notebooks of our genes, that we have all been all things - both male and female, parent and child, abuser and abused, villager and king. To behold one another through this great encompassing love, love indivisible, love uncompromising, brilliant, radiant and immense, is to behold the whole of human history, the face of God, in a single human being’s eyes.
from Heart & Soul, by Daphne Rose Kingma (see works by Daphne Rose Kingma )
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climbactic
climber
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Seems like a portal has lately opened up in the cosmoplasm and many great souls are being drawn through it.
If it is as they say, "all in the mind" then Bachar was a true genius.
Saxophone and full moon in the Camp 4 parking lot.
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hashbro
Trad climber
Mental Physics........
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I met John in 1973 bouldering at Stony Point in LA. He was an arrogant, buck-toothed, skinny guy; obviously smart and motivated.
He and I were both in 10th grade, probably had not dated a girl yet, and were simultaneously jockeying for position in the climber hierarchy of southern California. We were then, quite competitive with each other and were both mentored by the likes of Long, Accomazzo, Graham, Shockley.
When several years forward things changed forever, Mike Graham read aloud to the cadre of us beach boulderers, John's handwritten letter describing his free solo of New Dimensions; everything changed forever.
It wasn't until John and I both found ourselves living in Camp Four that we began to find our commonality, exploring things far beyond how hard we (or what we) could climb. He and I often ate meals, bouldered and nurtured our injuries together. I discovered then, that John had a depth of emotion and intellect that was not evident on the surface (especially in that hyper-competitive realm.)
Though I know John dealt with his white/male torment (as many of us and especially climbers have), I watched him evolving in what I can only describe as a "spiritual" path.
As many have mentioned, John lived to the fullest (even up to his last moment), and taught us the importance of focusing on what we love, fighting the downward pull into mainstream mediocrity and remembering to seize the day.
JB will live forever in our culture and within us. Thanks for your gifts to all of us John.
Spencer Lennard
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