slideshow review
Breaking Paradigms:
The Life and Climbs of Legendary Yosemite Hardman, John Bachar

presented by Access Fund   story by Jeff Williams - 3-26-09

The biggest snow storm of the spring could not keep the crowd away from the highly anticipated show of legendary climber John Bachar presenting a very rare slideshow of his climbing career. Highlights included the start of his free solo career in Joshua Tree along with historic photos of John in Yosemite on such famous climbs as El Cap and Half Dome in a day, the bold first free solo of the Nabisco Wall and of him on what was then the uncharted territory of the Mellicott Dome, when he established on-site the legendary Bachar-Yerian 5.11c R.  Slides featured historic climbs in Joshua Tree, Tuolumne, Germany, France, Spain, Eastern Sierra and Yosemite.

As I walked in Neptune Mountaineering in Boulder Colorado, I was surprised to my close friend engaged in a discussion with John Bachar. Drawing closer, I heard them talking of how much the sport has changed since the time that John had began, turning to few  gentle pokes at training in climbing gyms. John said when he started he would pick a line he liked and work on it till he got it, and that was how he trained at the time.  John said after this Colorado visit he was going to Mexico to follow up on business with his shoe company, Acopa. He reported that the company was doing well, but as is the case with the majority of industries, they have seen a slowdown as result of the recent economic turndown.

I left the short talk with the feeling that John was a humble, approachable and down to earth person. He was funny and engaging, and seemed sort of amused that so many people were interested in him and his slides.

The show began with John in Joshua Tree, which he reports formed the roots of his free solo career. Basically he says that what happened is that with so many short walls to climb; occasionally they would just push a highball problem.  As this happened more and more, they became more comfortable with climbing higher without ropes. He described his first 5.8 free solo and how seeing a 5.9 free solo impacted the perception of what was possible at the time.

From there he transitioned to Yosemite and a description of the evolution of his free solo circuit, where he chose a series of longer climbs that he would do repeatedly.  As in Joshua Tree, the selected routes would evolve.  He highlighted that he was also free climbing as well. He would work out a climb on rope; these would then often become part of his free solo circuit, expanding his free solo limits. He described the mental process that free soloing has and how he had to work through this.  

John discussed how the news and media picked up on him, and talked of how a sponsored trip to Europe impacted him. He was especially overwhelmed by their development of routes on rappel. In the mind of US climbers at that time everything was ground up. He says, “People tried to do things without falling as much as possible. If they fell they would lower immediately to the ground without looking up at the next section. “Using this method, a climber would work on a route until it became possible.  He challenged them on their ethics, but was unable to change their minds.  He refused to compromise on this.

When he returned to the US, he says he had his eyes on a steep unclimbed 500 foot knobbed granite face in Tuolumne Meadows.  Deriving inspiration from Dresden climbers and how they placed bolts by hanging on knots or hand drilling a small hole in order to hang off of to drill a real bolt,  when he got back to Tuolumne he realized that maybe he could do the same thing. This mind set was what led to the now renowned route Bachar-Yerian.  He says, “It wouldn't be true free climbing, but an aid/free hybrid. At the time, people only drilled bolts on face routes if they could hand stance them. I wanted to climb these vertical knob routes that were all over the place. I decided that I could hang on hooks and hand drill like that. I would lower back to the belay after drilling and climb back up yo-yo style and continue on to the next bolt placement.” He described how as he began to climb the protectable knobs were further and further apart, and he was not able to place the bolts as planned, but he kept moving up. This is how one of the most well known test-pieces of run out climbing came to be, joking about its significance in the history of the sport. He included a photo of him placing one of the bolts on the route. 

John’s show focused on how we can dream and make those a dreams a reality if we set our goals on something we want to accomplish. He talked of how climbing puts us in that mind-frame of pushing us to the limits of what is possible and then finding that we actually have the strength to get past those limits. He ended the slideshow by encouraging everyone to follow their dreams and reach for the seemingly unattainable.

Jeffy 'skunky' Williams