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Paul_in_Van
Trad climber
Near Squampton
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RIP John.
My thoughts are with us all, particularly those many he touched personally.
Paul
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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Climb High John
Peace
Karl
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apogee
climber
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"And when he is silent your heart ceases not to listen to his heart;
For without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, all expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unacclaimed.
When you part from your friend, you grieve not;
For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain.
And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.
For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun?
And what is to cease breathing, but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?
Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing.
And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb.
And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance."
-Kahlil Gibran
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Deýr fe, deyia frondr, deyr sialfr it sama;
enn orztírr deyr aldregi hveim er ser gođan getr.
Cattle die, kindred die, Every man is mortal:
But the good name never dies of one who has done well
From Hávamál, a collection of ancient Icelandic poems/folk wisdom.
John. Chess partner, decades ago, and fellow math geek. A friendship renewed over the last few years. Occasional and delightful pen pal. Wit, clear seer, and inspiration. Son, brother, and father. A climber and leader for the ages.
Perhaps I'll be able to say more tomorrow.
John had many friends, in different circles. Call them, soon. It's bad enough when a climbing friend dies; it's worse when you find out from the Monday morning news. Better that such news come directly from a friend, and important that people know. And it's a way of sharing grief.
Anders Ourom
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Wayno
Big Wall climber
Seattle, WA
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It was February,1982, at midnight and I was humping loads for my first El Cap route.There was a mist in the meadow and a full moon shone through. Some fool was playing his sax in ElCap Meadow at midnight on a full moon, and I was lucky enough to have shared that. God Speed, John Bachar.
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Lynne Leichtfuss
Social climber
valley center, ca
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Karl, thanks for your pictures...so very much. Anders, trying.
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TB
climber
Mammoth Lakes, CA
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I LOVED HIM....
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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(Not my photo - posted here a few years ago.)
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up2top
Big Wall climber
Phoenix, AZ
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Absolutely stunning.
My heart goes out to those of you who knew him as friends and family. He was, and will always remain, legendary.
Ed
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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hey there... oh my... this is a bad shock tonight...
dear john...
you are gone.. and i'm crying...
the proof of how well loved you are...
i have only known you from what folks had said...
never will i have a chance to enjoy you in person,
as all your beloved friends and family have...
thank you for a life well lived, that we have gotten to enjoy here...
these folks have honored your name and your life so very well...
that you were and still are, one very fine climber and man...
dear family... i'm sending my deep condolences here...
this is very sad and hard to believe....
all you folks are wonderful climbers to come and sit with here...
now one is greatly missed.. and even more so, out there in the great outdoors....
very sorry for you loss, dear friends and family of john bachar...
:(
may the good lord guide you all through this very awful and hard sad time... god bless and much love to you all...
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Dudeman
Trad climber
California/Idaho/Beyond
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Unreal! How very tragic. Mr. Bachar was such an inspirational person. His skill and vision unmatched. So sorry.
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Dimes
Social climber
Living in the past.
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Epps just called and passed on this disheartening event. We all have many memories of John but the one that I will always treasure/ remember is after a day of bouldering and an enligthened conversation with JB in Josh, he choose to give me a book that he had been reading-Fourteen Lessons in Yogi Philosophy. I walked to my bookcase, retreived it and opened it to one of the passages that John had made a note of-it is out of the third lesson entitled Spiritual Principles. Here are a few of the thoughts that he apparently pondered:
"As man's Spiritual Consciouness begins to unfold, he begins to have an abiding sense of the reality of the existence of the Supreme Power, and, growing along with it, he finds the sense of Human Brotherhood-of human relationship-gradually coming in to consciousness. He does not get these things from the Instinctive Mind, nor does his intellect make him feel them. Spiritual Mind does not run contrary to Intellect-it simply goes beyond Intellect. It passes down to the Intellect certain truths which it finds in its own regions of the mind, and Intellect reasons about them. But they do not originate with Intellect. Intellect is cold-Spiritual Consciousness is warm and alive with high feeling". JB was truly an elightened person and certainly showed many of us about the index of our own possibilities. Thanks John for sharing your vision with all of us.
KP
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Jobee
Social climber
El Portal
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This is terribly sad news.
I am stunned.
My sincere condolences to Tyrus, family, and friends.
How can one heart feel so heavy in my chest?
To John,
Big Moon tonight here in Berkeley; shining all over just for you.
Wishing everyone strength,peace, and comfort.
Crying out loud now...
Jo Whitford
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T2
climber
Cardiff by the sea
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WOW :(
R.I.P. John
I am at a loss of words best wishes and thoughts for close friends, family and Tyrus.
WTF another tribal Icon gone sheesh
Respectfully
Tommy Thompson
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Jennie
Trad climber
Idaho Falls
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Grand were his triumphs;…supreme was his influence;…inconceivable was his death.
May John's noble memory be enshrined and remembered.
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mcreel
climber
Barcelona, Spain
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John Bachar was a model for me because of his true commitment to the inner, most important part of climbing. The famous picture of him on New Dimensions, calmly hanging from a small fingerlock comes to mind. To me, that picture says he's there because he wants to be there. He knows it's dangerous, and maybe he's a little scared. But he's receiving something very important.
RIP
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HighDesertDJ
Trad climber
Arid-zona
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Wow. I don't refresh ST for a few hours and look what I miss. This is really sudden and surprising. We were all reading posts of his this morning. He was always a hero of mine and I'm glad to have gotten to meet him a couple times. Much love to his family and the whole East Side crew.
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pip the dog
Mountain climber
planet dogboy
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my gut aches at this news, which i just now read. my small head has simply locked up.
~~~
i once had a chance to talk to John for 20 or 30 minutes, sitting on the tailgate of someone's pickup in the C4 parking lot in the early 80's as he waited to meet up with one of his pals.
it was me, lippy my goofie and excellent aussie pal, and this self absorbed swedish hero we had stupidly (and briefly) teamed up with just that morning. a guy who JB himself later named "The Pride Of Sweden" -- a line that proved the perfect punch line to the funniest climbing story i’ve ever actually witnessed and have since learned to almost tell. perhaps on another day, when i am not so sad, i will try to tell it.
i myself was speechless as we sat with him. and recognize that speechless is a very rare thing in my irish clan. but i was in the presence of BACHAR! and yet, remarkably, he was sitting there on that tailgate talking with lame muffs like the lot of us. for i had assumed it was inevitable that a guy who did the impossible stuff he did (and all the enormous work to prepare himself physically and mentally for it) would be, well, a machine. just a fookin' machine -- not just another soul finding his way like the rest of us.
but i quick realized, just then, just there, that i was entirely wrong. for he was generous with his time, he actually listened to our teenie bopper prattle. he offered advice on route choices and training that would help us with the stuff we were flailing on. in a few gentle words, he gave lippy and i insights that, in time, truly changed not only our climbing but our youthful understanding of the world. and both for the better. not that it made me or lippy a BACHAR, or even in the same galaxy. but it made us both more than we would have been. he told us our weaknesses and how to fix them. i still flail when i shouldn't, and remain largely unfixed. but at least he gave me the gift of better understanding why.
fwiw, "The Pride Of Sweden" he toyed with rather wickedly -- as he saw in an instant what cost me and lippy many days and much misery to realize. i wish John had just dhope slapped the both of us and said "run away from this twerp, you twerps." but that was not his way.
~~~
what struck me most was how funny he was. not goofy rubber mallet/three stooges funny -- but dry sly funny. the kind of humor that dawns on you 6 hours, or 6 days, later. he was also quick to laugh. and lippy and i were truly a goofy pair, especially just then. the more serious we tried to be, the more we were a circus. and this cracked him up. but his laughter was not demeaning. rather he seemed to share our joy, loopy as it was.
that and he later proved to be equally happy to be at the receiving end of our rubber mallet goofery. for a week or so after our "tailgate moment" (as above), while we were "overstacking" in C4 slot, a half of a fifth (a tenth?) of jose cuervo inspired me to do some goofy schtick by the light of a nearby campfire. perhaps i was trying to find a prom date. more likely it was simply the intersection of too much cuervo, my own weird neurochemistry, and two days of lippy and i flailing on sh!t we thought was in our range that just pulled my string all the way out.
so i'm staggering and slurring and doing drag queen schtick. then life with the sadistic nuns at reform school schtick (which much overlapped with the former). and them, bobo alone knows why (i don't), i somehow ended up doing my BACHAR impersionation. as with all impersonations designed for laughs, i just took a couple the easiest of the man's many traits and turned the volume on them up to 11 (think Spinal Tap). so i ended up with this kinda lame cross between doper surfer dude speak and something akin to SNL's later Hans and Frans gag (that and some of the drag queen and homicidal nun stuff still in my system). rather lame in all.
imagine my surprise (horror is a better word) when JB himself steps in out of the darkness and into the fire light -- laugning his ass off. when i saw him i was certain he would snap me in two and bury me shallow (and rightly so). but no. what he did was stand right beside me and out-schtick me at my own silly BACHAR schtick. i laughed so hard i hyperventilated and wet myself. or maybe he pissed on my pants after i blacked out. either way, a joyous memory (that which i can remember).
~~~
i hope those truly close to John can, and will, record the generosity he so often offered. and his remarkable ability to read in a moment who people really were. that and his wicked and dry sense of humor.
for the man was far more than all the mind bending solos and routes that all of us know and those who follow us will also marvel at. he was a man who cared enough to listen carefully, even to dhopes like me and lippy. and a man willing to mentor the clearly mediocre.
a remarkable soul.
in just a few encounters, probably less than an hour in all, he taught me not how to do what he did -- as i have neither the physical nor mental gifts to get within parsecs of that -- but he did teach me how to be a better me. and that i appreciate more than i can say.
~~~
my thoughts are with all those truly close to him. i have no special insights to offer. i myself am simply trying to focus not on so much on his passing from this world, but rather on all of the magic he did while in this world. i myself find some solace remembering JB doing his own schtick variant on my goofy schtick impersonation of him. i wish i could send that mental image to all of you who admired and loved the man. a true pants wetter, and the kind of thing that only a guy who had found his own peace and confidence could possibly do.
^,,^ (michael)
John called me dogboy. my mom calls me dogboy. you can call me whatever you want.
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Daphne
Trad climber
Mill Valley, CA
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What a terrible loss. My deepest condolences to his son and family and friends, and to all here on supertopo who are grieving him. I can hardly believe that I am writing this. I have enjoyed knowing him only by his posts here and through the amazing stories his friends have shared with me. The climbing world won't be the same.
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