​The Dolt Show
October 22, 2018

Marty Karabin presents…..
A Night With Bill “Dolt” Feuerer
“Master Designer and Master Craftsman to Mountaineers”

This is a presentation I made for the Arizona Mountaineering Club, the show was originally on October 22, 2018. January 2026 I put the show into a play by play format so I can share it to the world, and added additional notes showing the research that supports the show.
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NOTE: Unfortunately I have never had the opportunity to meet Bill Feuerer since he died before I even got into rock climbing. This Dolt Show was put together using a few thousand hours of research that I did to find anything about Bill, and slowly finding Dolt gear creations throughout the past 30 years. The Dolt Show centers on the feelings and emotions that Bill Feuerer may have been experiencing within the great climbing events that were happening in the late 1950s and 1960s. I am not sure if the information in this show is correct, but I did my best to share the facts. The missing parts and pieces that I share about Bill’s life in this show have come from my personal heart, attempting to show the essence of this incredible man. Page Seven that follows the Dolt Show is the Thank You and Notes page. The overall facts of the people and climbing gear mentioned in the Dolt Show are listed in this Page Seven. I could have put the overall facts within the Dolt Show writing, but then the Show would have become a history document, where I want the reader to feel what Bill Feuerer was experiencing within his self. Hopefully people that knew Bill will come forward and share their story of Bill which will be added to this Page Seven page.

Photos/additional research: Marty Karabin, Yosemite Climbing Association/Yosemite Climbing Museum, a few photos unknown, research from magazines, Supertopo.com Forum, Vertical World of Yosemite Galen Rowell book, vintage climbers from the 1950s and 1960s..... and Audrey. I included a photos credit page in Page 7.
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The Arizona Mountaineering Club (AMC) asked me if I could put a slide show together showing some historic gear. I thought to myself that this task will be easy. I just have to come up with a subject of what I want to present. The show is going to be held at the Granite Reef Senior Center in Scottsdale Arizona, and the cost of the show is FREE. I first want to check out where I am going to be presenting, so I was taken to a small room that had a few tables and chairs. Right there I mentioned that this room will not work for me since I wanted to get a lot of people to attend the show. So I was taken to another room that was like a grand ballroom which just so happened to be available for use on that specific date. Wow it is a beautiful room that has a center stage, an electric viewing screen, a microphone and a few presentation podiums and is just perfect! Once I saw where I am going to be presenting, I told the AMC that this will not be just another slide show presentation, I needed to make this memorable.

So I tossed around a few ideas and it was fun, but not the show that I was seeking to present, and then Bill “DOLT” Feuerer came to mind. He came to mind so huge that I want to be Bill in the show. But how do I do this? Do I have enough time to put this show together, I mean, Bill is huge when it comes to early climbing history, especially in the Yosemite valley.  
Also since I am going to be Bill, I want Marty’s Ego to be involved in this show at it highest level. This show has to be not just Awesome, but Exquisite! Right there I knew that I need my support crew to be involved and I need my friends Stephie and Cat to be with me in the show. This is not going to be a slide show, but a performance!
I wrote a script of how the show is going to line up and Stephie and Cat worked with me putting their parts together for the show, and we rehearsed it a few times to get the timing perfect so the show would fit within the allowable time that we were given. I have always admired Bill Feuerer and there is a lot of history of him to dig through, and the missing pieces that I felt were necessary to have in the show had to be found. Sure there was stress going on in the prep work, but I really felt good about this presentation, so I continued to write, and write, and write. Then practiced what I was going to say many times over until I felt like the script was perfect. Then the day came, October 22, 2018, and it was time for the show.

Around 75 - 90 people starting arriving choosing their chairs for the show. I was really nervous but I knew the way the show was designed would allow me to take short breaks to keep my heart rate slow, while my support crew took the microphone and kept the show moving. I had with me Bill Feuerer’s tool box to show as a prop, but I was feeling warm like a cold was coming on so I filled the tool box with Dayquil, Tumms, Advil, etc just in case things went south. When Stephie arrived she looked green and was remaining silent. She mentioned that this was not the best time to tell me that she was feeling sick. So I then opened the tool box and showed her the medicine stash, and she started to laugh. No matter what, this show is going to happen. We are going to do this!!!
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The show lineup:
Marty Karabin is: William Dolt Feuerer
Catherine Ruiz: Narrator and is: Tom Frost
Stephanie Ruiz: In charge of the slide show and is: Yvon Chouinard
Jonah Phung - Video productions

The Show started with a few announcements from the AMC club, which soon after they introduced us and then handed the microphone to me. It was go time!!!

“”Big applause from the audience.””
“Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!”
First of all I will like to introduce the Ruiz sisters Stephie and Cat, who will be assisting the Dolt in the presentation.

“Please save all of your questions, I will answer them following the show.”
​(The house lights were on and Marty was up on the stage).

“Okay let’s see if the Dolt is available for some fun.”

(Marty’s hands are open)
(Marty starts channeling aloud for Bill to come out and play).
“Come on Bill.”
“Come on Bill this room is filled with friends.”
“Come on Bill….

​(Off to the side is a free-standing coat rack that has a vintage hat hanging on one of its hooks).
(Dolt hat, Marty made the hat using black spray paint and goldline rope)
(Marty puts on the hat and the room goes silent)
- Marty is now Bill.
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Greetings folks! Marty has been pestering me for some time now,… to tell my story. Many people know parts and pieces of it but maybe it “IS” time to share my life with others.
“I am William Dolt Feuerer!”

- (Lights OFF Please)
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- (Narrator)
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William Andrew Feuerer was born November 23, 1932 in Chicago Illinois.
Bills parents were William Feuerer and Emma Klara Gohl. His father was a night watchman and mother was a homemaker that traveled from Germany to New York city, then eventually to Chicago Illinois in the late 1920s. Due to the times of the Great Depression, Bills mother was institutionalized into the Manteno insane asylum where she later died in 1938. Bills father was a carpenter unemployed for a long time during the depression, and due to the fathers unemployment, Bill was brought to the Chicago Orphan Asylum, like many kids were at that time.
Eventually Bill was taken in by the Mueller family and lived on a farm in the 1940s. As a kid Bill was an active Boy Scout, and had a perfect attendance record in school. In 1951 Bill was “dismissed to self,” and entered military service.
In the autumn of 1955 while stationed at Castle Air near Merced California, Bill became interested in rock climbing. At first he stumbled on the easy climbs, but became a more efficient climber as time went on.
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- (Bill)
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​In 1956 I already climbed a few routes in Yosemite with Mark Powell. Then in the summer some friends said lets head out to the four corners area and climb some of the obvious towers in Monument Valley. So we decided to find a route up a formation called the Totem Pole in Arizona.
I was a bit intimidated since the formation was so straight up and was balancing there, so at first I stayed on the ground taking photos of my friends climbing it. It took a couple of days of hard climbing but we found a way to the top.
I was last up and I was quite uncomfortable prusiking up the formation in the very high winds. The wind at times was pushing me 40 or so feet away from the formation and whipping me around it, and I was not used to this kind of climbing.
Nevertheless we made the summit and celebrated our accomplishment.
I admit we are a motley looking crew. I am the one on the right laying with my new crazy look of combing my hair forward over one eye.
After climbing a few other formations in Monument valley, I headed back to Yosemite Valley with Mark.
We did a ascent up Lower Cathedral Rock on the North Buttress and I was having trouble with my climbing. Actually having trouble with my confidence so I started quoting the Bible and it made me more solid on wanting to keep ascending the rock. I was Jesus!
In 1957 Mark and I joined up with this guy named Warren Harding that was quite the committed climber. Warren already had his sights set on putting a route up Half Dome so we started preparing for the adventure. Unfortunately we heard news that there was already another group of climbers up there so we headed over to the bigger and closer formation, El Capitan.
I remember looking at El Cap and it and it gave me a queasy feeling in my stomach, but seeing Warrens confidence, I was up for the climb. My friend Mark Powell was also in for the adventure.
Mark was already a really good climber and made me look like a beginner, but it was nice that I had two confident leaders on the climbing team working our way up the route. We started the climb July 4, 1957.
A few climbing techniques to go over first. We will be using the hip belay.
We will use prusik cords for the ascent, no leg loops on the harness, and no helmet.
For the descent we will be using the Dulfersitz rappel technique.
From the beginning of the climb I saw that we didn’t have all of the gear that we needed to make this climb happen, so it gave me ideas to create gear that will fit better in the cracks, especially the wider ones.
Frank Tarver cut the legs off of an old stove and gave them to us to use on the climb as pitons, and we called them Stoveleg pitons.
Other pitons were my aluminum angle Feuerer piton
My Feuerer T-stock pitons
My Feuerer ringless angle and spoon pitons. Also a ring channel piton that I got from John Salathe
We also needed to drill a bunch of bolts for protection so I created a few different styles that we could choose from.
Progress up the Route was slow and we eventually dubbed the route El Capitan Nose, and called it the Nose Route. It was more like a construction project but yet we were obviously taking chances with many things that could get us really injured.
However I was having fun being involved with the climbing.
We were continually going up and down our fixed lines on the route to bring up more and more supplies to push the climb higher up the giant formation.  Also it gave us time to rest in Camp 4.
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- (Narrator)

​Bill was never the good leader. On one of his ascents he said that “his brain would not transmit the message to his fingers on techniques for tying a bowline knot to his waist.

(Pause)

On another ascent he stepped onto his etrier that was not attached to the rope and was still on his harness which caused him to take a fall.

(Pause)

Through excess of Prolific wine consumption, climbers began discussing Bills idiosyncratic unpredictable judgements, and that Bill was guilty of “Doltish” behavior.

(Pause)

And with wine sloshing from his cup while performing a foot scorching drunken dance upon the fire, Bill asserted again and again, yes “I am the Dolt”.
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- (Bill)

​“YES I AM THE DOLT…… YES I AM THE DOLT!!!!!
Dang look at this great looking guy!
Yes we drank a lot of wine and had a lot of fun, all of us having Doltish behavior.
It was fun being so involved with my friends. It made life a great adventure.