I've been to Fresno Dome only three times in 45 years. The first time, in 1970, Tim Schiller and I intended to climb something on the face, which at the time was (to our knowledge) unclimbed. We camped in the Fresno Dome Campground (before the days of fees or campground hosts), and walked on a maze of logging roads heading for the Dome, blissfully unaware that a drive up Sky Ranch Road would have gotten us to a much easier approach.

The forest obscured the view, and we did a bit of bushwhacking to get to the base of the cliff. At the time, we considered 5.7 quite difficult, and were looking for the easiest line. I started up a dirty gully, that we followed for two short pitches of easy fifth class, but the ease of the climbing didn't fool us. We knew that all first ascents of new climbing areas had difficulty so we expected to be confronted with a death pitch any moment.

Instead, the gully ended by a small roof and a face covered with chickenheads. Since this was steep, our fearful minds concluded it must be the requisite death pitch, so we traversed right a few feet and downclimbed perhaps 60 feet to a ledge with a flat-topped tree. From its right side, a tight chimney led to a face with all of one (1) 5.8 move. An easy fifth class pitch and a class 3-4 wander disclosed that we hadn't climbed the main face of Fresno Dome, but rather Hawk Dome. The summit block had a register with one entry in it - dated 1962. That party had just climbed the back side.

Even though our climb had only the one 5.8 move, and the rest didn't exceed 5.5, we longed for immortality. Unfortunately, neither the register nor our packs contained a writing implement. We did, however, have matches, and tried to create enough charcoal to smudge in our names. No luck. I suppose we could have poked our fingers and written in blood, but immortality didn't seem worth the temporary pain.

All I have is one snapshot of Tim climbing near the top of the route.


I did take a rather poor snapshot of the dome and drew in our meandering line. We managed to to about 600 feet of climbing on a 400 foot face:


We spent another night in the campground, but left for the Valley the next morning, rather than returning to do a route on the real face. Too Bad. Becky and Stewart climbed the real face the next year.

I returned in the late 1980's, because some friends told me about the South Pillar - basically saying it was one of the best easy climbs in the area South of Yosemite. They were right. Excellent rock, great position, fun climbing. We got lost at the start, or else the 5.7 rating was a sandbag, but others have now fessed up that going directly up to the first bolt is much harder. Sad to say, we didn't take a camera that trip.

My daughters and I returned on the Fourth of July, intent on climbing Whiskey Bill as a day trip from Fresno. There were far fewer climbers than I expected, but the first person we met was Mike Arichega, who wrote the new guidebook to Fresno Dome, and made the the first ascent of Whisky Bill. Mike and his partner were headed for the South Pillar, but he gave me extremely useful advice - where the climb starts, for example. Here's a picture of his party on the South Pillar:


Meanwhile, I started up for a casual, crack of noon, ascent of Whiskey Bill, belayed by my older daughter, Amy Bressette.


Meanwhile, my younger daughter, Lisa, was taking pictures of the route:


Or not.

The first pitch is straightforward - a 5.7 move or two near bolts, but mostly easier:


When Amy and Lisa joined me, however, they were concerned about the time, because they both took a while to get up the pitch, and they needed to be back down in the Big Raisin by 5:30, so they strongly suggested that it might be faster if we chose not to finish the route. The second pitch looked so stunning to me, though, that I talked them into at least going up one more, then I promised we could go back down.

The second pitch didn't disappoint. Amazing knobs, chickenheads and horns. Several places offered bombproof nut placements or secure knobs to tie off, plus there were three "moose bolts" for additional pro in a 100 foot lead.

This picture of Amy near the second belay ledge gives just a hint of what the rock is like:


At that point, I kept my promise, and we descended. I guessed, correctly, that two 60 meter ropes were enough to get us to the ground. I forgot, however, about what those chickenheads might do to the knot as we pulled the ropes. I couldn't pull the correct rope more than a few feet. No matter how we manipulated the ropes, or from what location, they were stuck.

At this point, it was clear that I had to do what fathers do - even if my daughters were in their late 20's. I was already in Guide Tennies, and my feet were much too comfortable to want to return to climbing shoes. There were so many features, however, and the angle was low enough that going hand-over hand was feasible. The challenge was to make it safe. Fortunately, the first bolt is only 15 feet up. I hauled up to the first bolt, clipped in, tied myself into the rappel ropes, and moved on to the second bolt and repeated the process. Before long, I was 100 feet up, at the first belay station, and able to free the rope so I could rap back down.

When I got to the ground, Lisa said "I guess it would have been just as fast to just finish the climb." Truth. But now they want to go back, so I consider this a successful trip.

More importantly, when Lisa got the second belay, after I'd been raving about how wonderful the second pitch was, she told Amy, "Dad is right. That second pitch is great." Mike and his partner heard this, and were in fact recording our climbing, so I heard this shout from the South Buttress: "We recorded a miracle, John. Your daughter admitted you were right!"

Could there be any doubt?

John