Allan Bard; Mountain Guide, Expert on Sierra Nevada, Skiing

Allan Bard, 44, of Bishop, one of California’s best-known mountain guides, has been killed in a 130-foot fall while guiding a client on the 13,766-foot Grand Teton in the Teton range of Wyoming.

Bard had climbed and guided extensively in the United States, and on occasion in the Alps, but was particularly at home in the Sierra Nevada.

Bard was considered the premier ski mountaineering guide in California and was a frequent contributor to magazines on skiing in the high mountains. He had also worked as a ski instructor at the Mammoth Mountain ski area and had written climbing guides to popular Sierra peaks.

Bard apparently slipped on ice-glazed rock while ascending the Owen-Spaulding route, one of the more popular and least difficult lines up the highest peak in Grand Teton National Park, friends and park rangers said.

“It was a freak thing,” said Allan Pietrasanta of Bishop, a longtime friend and climbing partner of Bard.

The accident happened high on the mountain on Saturday. Bard apparently struck a ledge before coming to the end of his climbing rope and was believed to have died instantly.

A memorial service is scheduled in Bishop on July 19.