>>A story told in online conversation (first two links).
>>
>>http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.html?topic_id=895790
>>
>>http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.html?topic_id=896157
>>
>>http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-john-bachar8-2009jul08,0,7890954.story
>
>Too bad. He was a legend. I remember reading stories about him back in the 70s and wondering how long he would live.
>No doubt free-solo is the purist form of climbing, but the cost of a mis-judgement is pretty severe.

Clearly he made the most of the time he had. He was very accomplished and had a million friends and admirers. Not following the climbing world at all, I had not heard of him, but it got my attention that his obituary was in the New York Times. Mountain climbers are not typically found on that page.