John Bachar (March 23, 1957 – July 5, 2009) was an American rock climber who was noted for his skill in climbing without a rope, or free solo climbing.
Bachar was born in 1957. He grew up in Los Angeles, California and started climbing at Stoney Point. He attended UCLA, where his father was a math professor, but dropped out to climb full-time. Obsessed with the sport, Bachar immersed himself in books on physical training and nutrition, and soon w...
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John Bachar (March 23, 1957 – July 5, 2009) was an American rock climber who was noted for his skill in climbing without a rope, or free solo climbing.
Bachar was born in 1957. He grew up in Los Angeles, California and started climbing at Stoney Point. He attended UCLA, where his father was a math professor, but dropped out to climb full-time. Obsessed with the sport, Bachar immersed himself in books on physical training and nutrition, and soon was able to outperform his fellow climbers.
John Long, whom Bachar met in the early 1970s, shared his interest in physical training and convinced Bachar to try free soloing, starting with the classic Joshua Tree route Double Cross (5.7). Bachar also put up notorious bouldering problems in Joshua Tree such as Planet X (V6) and So High (V5). The committing crux move of the latter problem is 25 feet off the ground.
Bachar was first noted for his climbs in Yosemite with his unroped ascents of New Dimensions (5.11a) and The Nabisco Wall, a three...
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