06 Jul John Bachar passes, accident at Dike Wall

 

John Bachar was found yesterday at the base of Dike Wall, a granite cliff suspended over Mammoth Lakes near Bishop, California, where he lived together with his son Tyrus.
 
The reason of the accident are unknown. He was born on 1957 and grown up in Los Angeles; he attended at UCLA university then devoted himself to full time climbing.
 
John Bachar  is a true legend in world climbing and an inspiration  for generations of climbers. He was a pioneer in training for climbing and long before bouldering was popular, he practised that discipline.
 
On 1975 together with  Ron Kauk and John Long he completed a masterpiece as Astroman at Washington Coulumn, at that time the most continuously difficult free climb in the world.
 
Confident of his free soloing ability, Bachar posted a note in 1981 promising a "$10,000 reward for anyone who can follow me for one full day."
No one took the challenge.
 
In 1986 (at that time talented modern climbers as Honnold or Potter were kids!)  Bachar and Peter Croft  linked The Nose at  the Capitan and Regular Routeat Half Dome in under 14 hours. Definitively, Bachar pushed the boundaries of what was possible and raised the world’s standards of climbing.
 
On August 2006, he was involved in a serious car accident in Salt Lake Sity Colorado and suffered five fractured vertebrae.
 
An awesome documentary on Bachar One Man, One Myth, One Legend was written and directed on 2005 by Michael Reardon, a professional American Free Solo Climber, filmmaker and writer (perished after being swept to sea by a rogue wave shortly after climbing a cliff in Ireland)  
 
John Bachar interview july 2008 – extract – by Dave Gill
 
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