John Bachar Dies Soloing

John Bachar was found dead on Sunday 5th of July at the base of Dike Wall, Mammoth Lakes in California. He had been soloing alone and it is not known what caused him to fall. John was 52 years old and leaves a son, Tyrus.

John Bachar was famous in the climbing world for several reasons. He was particularly well known as being one of the first climbers to train extensively and exclusively for climbing. He did pull ups on tiny edges, went bouldering, slacklining and as part of this training regime invented the ‘Bachar Ladder’. Since then the ‘Bachar Ladder’ has been used by hundreds of climbers around the world as a training aid.

Throughout the 80’s he soloed multiple routes in the US up to 5.11c (E5) and was responsible (with Ron Kauk) for one of the most famous boulder problems in the world, Midnight Lightning V8 in Yosemite. He was a strongly and vocally in favour of ground up climbing and was against the practise of rap bolting that became prevalent during the 80’s.

To find out more about his life and climbs visit UKClimbing.com

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