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lostinshanghai
Social climber
someplace
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May 1977. Can not recall but he said something about this and climbing were related.
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dfrost7
Social climber
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For me, he will always be the James Brown of climbing.
"I got soul, and I'm super-bad"
I can not absorb this. Rest in peace dear John.
Laurie
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looking sketchy there...
Social climber
Latitute 33
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As the above begins to show, John's legacy is far more than just a bold and groundbreaking free-soloist. John's FAs and FFAs of routes and boulder problems is more than impressive. During the 1970s and early 1980s his roped ascents were remarkable.
But even beyond his climbing resume, John brought a new sensibility to rock climbing and in the process changed the direction of the "sport." John was a superb athlete and one of the early proponents of specialized training for climbing. I remember him telling me that climbers had barely begun to explore the limits of difficulty and that compared to Olympic level gymnasts, climbers were (at the time) weak and unsophisticated.
He spent a lot of time devising training regiments and the results were more than apparent -- both in John's climbing and in the acceptance of training as part of serious climbing.
Clint's List should include:
The FFA (TR) and subsequent lead of Leave It To Beaver in 1978. Later, John would use the route for training, doing laps on his "Bachar Ladder" strung to the side of the route, between laps on the climb. An impressive, powerful and influential image considering 5.12 was cutting edge at the time.
The Beaver was iconic of the new generation of serious climbers and as much as any route, on most European climber's must do list.
Acid Crack was and remains an impressive FA and lead. Moonbeam Crack and Baby Apes are just a few other seminal routes at Josh that as much as anything made Joshua Tree a destination crag.
I've posted this in John's memorial thread, but I was fortunate enough to be able to shoot John's first lead of Acid Crack. The control of John's movement is difficult to describe.
First Lead of Acid Crack, Joshua Tree
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tolman_paul
Trad climber
Anchorage, AK
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It would be interesting to also add the various tv shorts about John. I have a copy of a video of him soloing oz. That's actually how I'd gotten into correspondence with John as he said he'd be trying for years to get a copy of that as his had burned up in the fire and nobody he knew had a copy and apparently the studio couldn't find the original. So I had it converted to dvd and sent it to him. There was a short bit of him playing his sax in the meadows at the end, but unfortunately my monther had taped over that bit.
I'll have to post it up on youtube.
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Lost, was that a 'Great moment in baseball'?
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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FA of Equinox, JT, on TR?
Sole Fusion 12a, JT circa '83, a real beauty & early ground up (how else?) Bosch? route.
(um, as I recall...saw the bolts go in, so ...might be true)
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aldude
climber
Monument Manor
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Walter....John in his typical 2 letter grade sandbag style thought the Phantom 12d X and had to siege to get the critical #5 crux stopper and then test it from the ground. I doubt this route has ever been redpointed.
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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I'm with you on that, Sewlly, a few misplaced details, but a well done piece that gets to the heart of it.
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Gilberto
Social climber
La Crescenta, CA
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John Bachar 2009 --
John, free of his 51 years old body will now climb forever. Free as always.
Wherever you touch stone you will fill his presence, and if you don't, listen close for the jazzy saxophone sounds blowing in the wind...
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Studly
Trad climber
WA
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Someone earlier suggested a book about the life of John Bachar. Seems like there is one guy that would fit the bill to write that book. John Long, who not only has the climbing gift but the ability to put it into words.
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Ottawa Doug
Social climber
Ottawa, Canada
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Thanks to all of you for the amazing history/bio.
Cheers,
Doug
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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wierdly, I still half expect John to post up here and correct the errors in our history... but that won't happen...
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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early Tuolumne FAs
Black Magic 5.11d FA 6/1981, John Bachar, Alan Bartlett
Gold Finger 5.12a FA 7/1981, John Bachar
Body and Soul 5.12 FA 7/1981, John Bachar, Mike Lechlinski
Start Bouldering 5.11 FA 7/1981, John Bachar, Mike Lechlinski
Lechlinski Flake 5.11a FA 7/1981, Mike Lechlinski, John Bachar
You Asked For It 5.10 FA 7/1981, John Bachar, Ron Peers
Bachar-Yerian 5.10d FA 8/1981, John Bachar, Dave Yerian
Cheat Stone 5.10 FA 1981, John Bachar, Mike Lechlinski, Dave Yerian
Steep Thrills 5.11a FA 6/1982, John Bachar, Alan Bartlett
Huricane Betsy 5.11d FA 7/1982, John Bachar
Tune Up 5.10a FA 7/1982, John Bachar, Ron Kauk
Inner Vision 5.10b FA 8/1982, John Bachar
Movement in Camouflage 5.10c FA 1982, John Bachar
(from Rock Climbs of Tuolumne Meadows Reid & Falkenstein © 1983)
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Remuus
Trad climber
Cali then; Tetons now
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Another short but cool FA is "Shaft of the Penetrater" at the knobby wall.
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Rankin
climber
North Carolina
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Jul 10, 2009 - 09:27am PT
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bump
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Greg Barnes
climber
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Jul 10, 2009 - 12:03pm PT
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I was waiting until Ed listed up the full JB list in Tuolumne, but I wanted to ask people about some obscure stuff:
 someone told me that Latin Lady (5.10a R/X on Low Profile, the streak just left of Black Widow) is a JB route - it says "unknown" in the FA index - anyone know?
is there a JB free solo FA between Darth Vader's Revenge and Sh#t Hooks or somewhere right in there?
did the project Battlefield of the Galactic Giants (or Battlefield of the Cosmic Giants, name?) go to the huge ledge at the base of Lechlinski Flake/You Asked For It and was incomplete higher, or was it a project whose first pitch was incomplete? I remember seeing one bolt about 100' off the deck, I think it was a 3/8" hex-head (probably Diamond Taper) with a Leeper hanger.
for way obscure stuff, no idea if it is related to JB or not, but near Johnny Rock: a little left of Beyond a Shadow of Doubt is a steep flake to leftward traverse to steep section, with a big slab above. No idea if this is a complete line or a project. There is one fixed bong and a single visible bolt (looks like 1/4" plus Leeper), probably 70+ feet up. Definitely would be a 2-pitch route, but may be really runout, not sure on p1 anchor.
Just FYI on Johnny Rock - the bolt is an original beefy 3/8" JB taper eye bolt, like the ones on the bottom of Peace and the ones that used to be on Grenade Launcher, so it should be bomber.
Also just FYI, the bolts on Swinger (5.11+ R/X, JB and Kauk) are still 1/4", we replaced the Lechlinski Flake anchor but didn't go higher. I would assume that the Black Magic (5.11c R/X) bolts are also bad.
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Maysho
climber
Truckee, CA
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Jul 10, 2009 - 12:08pm PT
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"Bachars Revenge" is the black streak just right of the Darth Vadar roof. 5.10a. You can actually put some pieces in step over and lead it that way. Often did that while guiding. Soloed it once, when I was on a training run for some other knob action years ago, and that is where Rick Cashner broke a knob and took a bad tumbling fall that would have been were he not so thickly built.
Peter
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dfrost7
Social climber
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Jul 11, 2009 - 02:08am PT
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Bump for John.
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