The Bachar - Yerian rock climb at Tuolumne Meadows

There are few routes in the USA which command as much respect as the Bachar - Yerian at Tuolumne Meadows in California. Perhaps it's because of the two who invented this route (legendary John Bachar and Dave Yerian), perhaps it's due to the style adopted during the first ascent (established ground-up with hardly any hand-placed bolts, with long run-outs which must absolutely not be underestimated). Or perhaps it's due to when it was established (1981, the year in which Bachar was at his absolute top)... Whatever the reasons, the fact of the matter is that this beautiful, steep and technical 5.11c R/X slab on Medlicott Dome, in the cool of Tuolumne Meadows, has remained an important testpiece against which even today some of the world's best measure themselves. A true psychological test in a fairy-tale position up a tenuous line of characteristic chicken-heads, those diorite knobs which protrude from the outstanding Yosemite granite...

In this video it's a young Hayden Kennedy (pre-Cerro Torre if you get our drift) and one of the icons of Yosemite Valley, Ivo Ninov, who climb this route which entered straight into the history of U.S rock climbing.


Tuolumne Meadows - Yosemite bouldering