7th Annual Climb4Life^SM Salt Lake

Pro Athletes

Check back soon for more announcements of this year's participating Pros.

John Bachar

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[1].

Bachar made a name for himself in Yosemite with his unroped ascents of New Dimensions (5.11a) and The Nabisco Wall, a three-pitch affair (Waverly Wafer (5.10c), Butterballs (5.11c), Butterfingers (5.11a))[2]. Bachar's superb physical fitness gave him an edge; his campsite at Camp 4 was filled with exercise equipment, including the hanging ladders that became known as Bachar ladders. At his peak Bachar was able to perform a one arm pull up with 12.5 lbs of weight attached.[3]

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. That same year he put up Bachar-Yerian (5.11a) in Tuolumne Meadows with Dave Yerian. One of the boldest first ascents ever, the 500 foot face climb is protected by a mere 13 bolts, each one placed while tenuously hanging from a hook. Bachar was a vocal critic of climbing tactics such as bolting on rappel which came into vogue during the 1980s.

In 1986 Bachar and Peter Croft made an link up of El Capitan and Half Dome, climbing a vertical mile in under 14 hours.[4] In the 1990s Bachar free soloed Enterprise (5.12b) in the Owens River Gorge and The Gift (5.12c) at Red Rocks for the Masters of Stone video series. He was featured in the documentary Bachar: One Man, One Myth, One Legend (2005) by Michael Reardon.

Bachar lives in Mammoth Lakes, California and is Director of Design of Acopa International LLC, a company which manufactures rock climbing shoes. The website for his shoe company is www.acopausa.com.

Alli Rainey

Climbing since 1992, Harvard graduate Alli Rainey lasted for a single year working a real-world job before she chose to take a different route, becoming a rock climber and freelance writer. As a climber, Alli’s accomplishments range from redpoints of more than 30 5.13’s up to 5.13+ (including many unrepeated first ascents) and onsights of more than 150 5.12’s up to 5.12d, to bouldering V9, to winning and placing highly in numerous local, regional, and national bouldering competitions throughout her tenure as a climber. Alli’s climbing sponsors include Acopa, Clif Bar, Flashed, Native Eyewear, Petzl, prAna, Rocky Mountain Sunscreen, and Sterling Rope. As a writer, to date Alli has completed several full-length book projects, including Bouldering USA, as well as writing numerous articles for a variety of magazines and journals, including a monthly rock-climbing column she writes for Rocky Mountain Sports and articles published Men's Fitness, Rock & Ice, Climbing, Alpinist, Gripped, American Alpine News, and Boulder Magazine, among many others.

Lately, Alli’s focus in the climbing community at large has turned to public service, with her efforts in 2007 geared toward participating in as many community-oriented climbing events that she can fit into her traveling-climber lifestyle. You’ll find Alli at community-oriented happenings such as the Red Rocks Rendezvous, Sterling Rope Women’s Weekends, Petzl ROC Trip, HERA Climb for Life events, and more. Alli’s philosophy is simple: she believes that it’s these types of events—the unique opportunities to reach out to the climbing community and/or the community at large and to speak the language she knows best (the language of rock climbing)—that enable her to positively impact the world around her in the most effective way she can. In sharing her infectious passion for rock climbing, which has defined and shaped so much of her world, lifestyle, and core being, Alli has found a way to take her relationship with climbing onto the more meaningful level of benefiting others.

When she’s not climbing or writing, Alli enjoys spending her time exploring and playing in the woods and the desert with her friends and her dog, Jedi; cooking; reading; listening to and playing music; eating good food (good being a relative term, since anything tastes good if you’re hungry enough); running; and laughing.