John Bachar 1957 -2009

It is very sad to hear about this story . 8a has a policy to not write about death of climbers in the news.

I think that, for someone who was so instrumental in the development climbing, not only in the United States, but abroad, the least you could do would be to notify people of the loss to the community. At its heart, climbing should be about community and the fraternity of the indescribable, the goals we hope to attain without ever really truly knowing why we do what we do. A loss to this community is staggering, no matter who it was or how they died. Please show some respect. He deserves it. Anyone deserves it. He lived life to the fullest until the very end. A muerte.

I understand your point but climbers actually die every week or month around the globe. It would be strange to start judging who we would mention in the news. However, if somebody would like to write a memorial article afterwards, we would publish it as John was a pioneer in climbing.

You make a judgement about what ascents to report. Why not extend this judgement? After all, proper journalists make that judgement every day.

@Graeme: fully agreed! 8a. has a policy to publish everything as long as numbers are concerned (so much about the numbers game) but is not willing to report the death of one of climbing`s greatest pioneers. I don`t see the point. It takes some skill to do so in an ethically correct way but it`s a shame that a man deserving that much credit does not get it from a page that claims hit records every month.

The ultimate in disrespect Jens. What we have come to expect from you and this website. Absolutely disgusting. Mick Ryan UKClimbing.com VIDEO/PHOTOS: John Bachar Passes by Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com 06/Jul/2009 This news story has been read 8,616 times http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=48225

Jens, first of all, congratulations for the site.  Tons of information!  But i would like to mention i got disapointed when i tryed to look for informations about Bachars death, and didn't find anything.  I didn't find your argument consistent, when you say that you don't post climbers deaths because climbers die every week.  I believe new ascents and hard routes are done, also, every week around the globe, and you also don't publish then all.  Bachar represented, to the climbing comunity, much, much more than Ondra represents today.  I've beem climbing for 30 years, and you can take my word on that.  And he died climbing.    If Ondra had died  soloing yesterday, woudn't you post any news?   I think the site should revew its policy.   And again, I love the site, and it is a critic just to try to make it even better. Marcelo

Jens, I think you would struggle to find a single 8a.nu user who would disapprove if you posted some info about Bachar's death. Not to say that publishing news about the passing away of climbing legends could only add to the credibility of 8a.nu as a climbing news-source (unless, of course, you have other reasons for not publishing such info)

As I have said, we would publish a memorial about Bachar who has meant a lot to the climbing community. You can see from statistics that news about death is increasing traffic. We would not want to be such a news channel. Once again, I hope somebody can write a memorial and we would publish it.

Mick. I'm critical of a lot of things Jens does, but you always jump on him and use the situation to peddle your website. I understand you have a personal feud over the who E-Grade thing, but using this situation to boost your traffic or promote how "you are right, Jens is wrong; visit my site over his"... Well. You're kind of a twit. Sincerely, Everyone who thinks you're a twit, or git, or whatever people would call you at: UKclimbing.com P.S. How about we do get someone to write a memorial? I'd volunteer but I'm sure there are other people better suited.

how is posting a memorial any different from posting news about john bachar?  you would have to say "john bachar has died, read this memorial" sounds like a cop out to me.  if someone dropped chris sharma and he died, i am sure you would post something, and you would probably write the memorial atricle yourself! obviously jens has never freesoloed before, or he would see what the true meaning is, instead he has an ignorant and incorrect position about freesolo.  climbing is all about mind and body connection, and freesolo is the ultimate form of that.  it is a FACT that more % of rope climbers die, than the % of freesoloists who die.  these arent numbers, they are percentages!

The father of free soloing ! Mandi di cûr !

Oh, for God's sake, who cares? So Jens has a policy of not reporting on this stuff.. If you want to read more about the "great" Bachar who regularly climbed in one of the most dangerous ways possible and left his 11 year old son fatherless as a result, then read any one of many climbing publications who are currently waxing lyrical about him. -M  

That last post indicates a judgement. It may be right, or indeed it may be wrong. Does the reporting of news need to indicate some kind of judgement. Indeed, the reporting of such news could be as much a cautionary tail as much as it is a statement of respect for some of the other achievements of a person's life. Peoples' lives (and sadly their deaths) generally don't fit policy. I think that John Bachar's passing is even materially different to the policy of choosing not to report solo ascents. This is a significant person in the climbing world whom this policy has led this site to choose to ignore and I personally think that this site becomes more impersonal as a result of that decision. Have a bit of humanity -the previous poster chose to make judgemental and high handed statements about this 11 year old boy's father rather than express sympathy (as if he is really concerned about Bachar's son - more like he is using him a a foil for his own value judgements"Oh, for God's sake, who cares? " - well maybe you F@**kin should!) -shame on you all - both the previous poster and the editor. My thoughts go out to the family. If it were a car crash you probably wouldn't exercise such "restraint". The simple fact is that John Bachar represents a very different approach to the sport to that of the current mode. The choice to ignore his passing is historically mindboggling. Going on this choice, 8a.nu would disregard the validity of most (if not all) of the climbers of the early days who pioneered this sport - I think that that alone indicates that this policy is being applied without proper thought. As far as putting the ball in other people's court ("...if somebody would like to write a memorial article ....") - well that's nonsense. I think you are being disingenuous.

To Dominic: Let's presume the idea of the editor is to keep people out of solo climbing. Then the less publicity hard solo climbists get, the less it will intrigue people to start doing it (that has to be the bottom line assumption). If such an assumption is made, then refraining from posting about John Bachar is in line with that policy of not making hard solo climbists heroes at least in this medium and getting more people into it. Wheather the assumption is correct is of course quite debatable.

wow Maurice, pretty pathetic.  Hate on somebody who just died?  Obviously you have never freesoloed, or you would understand.  I don't think posting news about freesolo encourages anyone to freesolo.  People dont solo to make news or break records.  If they do, then they have a death wish, and are probably crazy enough that they are more likely to die dragracing on the way to the crag.  I have never met a freesoloist who climbs for records, usually these are the most humble and solid climbers around. Most soloists are less likely to die than your average climber.  You are more likely to die, Maurice, by getting dropped by your belayer than Dean Potter is to fall off a 5.10 solo.  Of course it can happen, but so can your death while pratcicing "safe" climbing with ropes.  Get real. What about posting all this news about 8 year old climbers?  this can be dangerous for such young children.  Usually wonder kids are being pushed by parents and media.  This website fuels the fire for young kids to make news.  I think encouraging that is worse than news about freesolo.

To Shock, your post which begins:- "To Dominic: Let's presume the idea of the editor is to keep people out of solo climbing...." You only respond to part of my post. I went on to say more. I still believe that his life should not be dismissed due to the manner of his death. Even the national newspapers in Britain and the US picked up on his passing and did a creditable job of representing his achievements. He was significant for more than just his soloing. Surely a climbing site can unravel the complexities of this without just applying blanket policy? The act of remembering someone does not inevitably condone all of their choices. I understand that there is a motivation to make this site acceptable to the youngest of climbers, fair enough, but I don't see how this has to sanitise things to the extent of effectively denying the fact that something has happened? A carefully written and thoughtful news item would have taken care of it.

Its going to be a policy until it happens to some one 8A admire and understand like Ondra, Sharma etc