Hi! I'm new to the site here. Got out to Fresno Dome for the first time earlier this month. Armed with just a few topo's salvaged from the internet and my horrendous route finding capability, my expectations for getting in any actual climbing were low. Luck (and the generosity of those on this site) smiled on my partner and I that day and we found the start of Whiskey Bill on our first lap of the dome.
The climbing was nothing short of excellent fun!
P1 - Finding the start was the crux for me
once we got a good look at south pillar and then backtracked to the start of Whiskey Bill, we found the diagonal seam that runs just above the start. I got nervous and brought twice the rack I needed for the climb. Starting out with a few face moves with all that extra weight hanging from me felt a bit unsettling.
P2 - First time I've ever had the pleasure of climbing through a sea of chicken heads, so cool!!!
P3 - This pitch was the most challenging for me. I probably just have my route finding to blame. I didn't want to run it out, so I climbed left off the anchor to sling a knob, which I did, but it almost immediately slid off when I started traversing back to the bolt. Made the first bolt okay, never saw the second bolt, but got a small cam and a small nut placed, and then made the final bolt right before the friction moves. I would have been scared on the frictions moves without that bolt below me.
P4 - Loved climbing this pitch once I figured where to go! I remembered the beta said to climb out right to a face (I missed the part about a hand crack) to a bolt. If you pretty much traverse straight right from the first bolt, there's another route just to the right of this pitch of Whiskey Bill that looks like some steep face climbing.
P5 - What fun climbing up the book! I don't think I used a single cam, the pitch just ate up stoppers like they were going out of style.
We skipped the bolts at the top and just set the anchor on the big blocks.
After, we hiked down, hoping to find some single pitch leads to spend the afternoon on, but had trouble clearly identifying any of the routes to the (climbers) right of Whiskey Bill. Saw many, many bolts and fun looking lines, but had no idea where they went. We ended up hiking all the way around the dome and up/around hawk dome before calling it a day.
Hope to get back and explore some more sometime soon!
Also it snowed the night before, so I made a snowman for the kids back at home
