Fall 1957 we pushed the Nose Route higher up and bad things started to happen over and over. Warren took a big fall which caused a bad rope burn on his left hand. I took a good fall from one of my bolt hangers breaking. Already at that time I was telling Warren that I was not into the route as much as when I started. Our fixed ropes were getting chewed through from the Valley weather. My beard got stuck in my prusik. I was quoting the Bible a lot more.
By November other climbers got involved with the route and we pushed it up to big ledge appropriately named Dolt Tower, which is around 1200 feet up.
Warren, Mark and I noticed that below Dolt Tower the wall is quite flat so we devised a easier way to haul up the gear making a cart with bicycle wheels. At this time the cart brought new energy to the Nose Route ascent.
With our genius we dubbed the cart the Dolt cart.
We hauled a lot of gear with the Dolt cart
We used a Windlass winch we named the Dolt Winch to haul up the cart which was more work than it was worth, but it was working. Mark Powell took a big fall while climbing another route in Yosemite which messed up his ankle pretty bad.

​While at camp 4 I told Warren I am going to learn to fly… and Warren got concerned with my craziness. We gave the route a break.
I ended up getting a job with McDonnell Douglass Aerospace company, as a test engineer.
During that time I continued to make more gear as I planned on returning to the Nose Route with Warren and Mark.
I created a handful of bolt hangers that I stamped “DOLDT” because I was not sure if I wanted to use the name spelled DOLT referring to me as a idiot.
But then while I was stamping my DOLDT name on my personal climbing gear, I figured that I was becoming a double idiot for not spelling Dolt correctly, so I decided to just use the name Dolt.
So I stamped the remaining pieces of my personal climbing gear “DOLT”
Mark Powell wrote an article for Summit magazine about the Totem Pole first ascent and it made the April 1958 front cover.
I created many more pitons for the Nose route including a set of angles and channel pitons. I was really enjoying creating climbing gear for the climbs.
The three of us returned to the Nose Route around Easter 1958 and pushed the route to Boot Flake. We used my DOLDT hangers on the section that led to Boot Flake. Warren suddenly took a big fall when one of my special adjustable bong pitons cut loose. Hearing the sound of the rope abruptly catching him really got me scared. I could not stop quoting the Bible and was very very scared. I wanted off the route ASAP.
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- (Narrator)

Bill was really scared and Marks ankle was still bothering him so both of them left the Nose Route and did not return.
Warren Harding was the main energy with the Nose Route so he got a new team of climbers together to push the route higher up to the top.

Bill continued to supply the climbers with whatever they needed, like over a hundred bolt hangers and different unique pitons which helped make the Nose Route be completed.

On November 1958 Warren Harding, Wayne Merry, and George Whitmore topped out on the Nose Route completing the first ascent. Overall the route took 45 days of work over a 18 month period to be achieved. Bill, Mark Powell and 3 others are included in the route history, but not included in the overall First Ascent listing.
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- (Bill)

​Yes it was really cool to see that Warren got a new team together climbing with Rich Calderwood, Wayne Merry and George Whitmore.
They were still using the Dolt Winch.
Wow they pulled off the first ascent. I was really proud of Warren's drive to complete that route. It was a monumental climb for sure and I was somewhat bummed that my name was not included. At the same time I had to get my climbing jitters out of me.
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And they summited!

Harding, Merry and Whitmore.
So during the rest of 1958 I decided to go into the climbing gear manufacturing business. At that time another manufacture named LONGware was creating pitons, and I liked this little tiny piton LONGware made so I designed my logo from it’s shape.
And the Dolt logo was born. Since the items were coming from my Dolt shop I named the catalog the Dolt Hut. The Dolt created items at that time were: my new leather hammer holster, a full set of angle pitons, and bolt hole scrapers that removed the drill dust from bolt holes previous to installing the bolts. I also sold other manufacturers gear and created a catalog.
Yeah!!! My 1958 Dolt Hut catalog.
I created a small piton die, that I could mark all of my products with.
This photo shows a page in my 1958 catalog that shows my new hammer holster. Available in two colors, Medium brown, or jet black. This page also shows hammers from Austria and Dolt Bolt Hole Scrapers.
These are bolt hangers made by John Salathe, a few Star brand bolts, and my Dolt Bolt Hole Scrapers.
My 1958 catalog shows my new line of Ringless Angle pitons which I was psyched to make. I wanted the pitons to be able to fit the cracks within the cracks perfect size, so they varied in 1/16 size increments. I welded the hammer ends of the pitons so the angle body would not collapse under the blows of the hammer and could be used over and over. I also put a coating on the pitons so they would not rust.
I also offered 7/16" size ropes to the climbers which is known as Plymouth Nylon.
In 1958 a new guy on the scene was also starting to produce climbing gear, named Yvon Chouinard.
Yvon created the super strong aluminum Alcoa carabiner.
Here’s Yvon in his shop in Berkley California working on his carabiners. Yvon in 1958 also started producing a ringless angle piton which I believe he got the design from my pitons.
I also became friends with another new character in Yosemite named Tom Frost. In 1959 I climbed a few routes with Tom and we really became solid good friends. I also was still climbing with Mark Powell and put up a few new First Ascents in Yosemite.
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- (Narrator)

​In 1959 Bill was having a lot of fun being fully recognized as a mountaineer as all of the climbers were putting up amazing first ascents in Yosemite. You can see how happy Bill is in this photo being amongst the bold super climbers.

Bill and Toms friendship grew and Tom spent a lot of time visiting Bill in his shop. Yvon Chouinard continued to create more pitons and Bill had a great respect for Yvon for being a fellow gear craftsman. Bill felt a great friendship was being developed between Bill, Tom and Yvon.
In 1959 the three of them spent time in Tahquitz climbing many routes including the Traitor Horn, which Bill took many photos of on their adventures.

In March 1960, Bill came up with many new Dolt products and created a new climbing gear catalog. Since Yvon did not have a catalog, Bill included Yvon’s new and improved Alcoa Carabiner in the Dolt catalog, and Yvon’s newly designed pitons which later became known as Lost Arrow pitons, and Knife blade pitons.
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- (Bill)

​Summit magazine in 1960 covered the Tahquitz adventure where many of my photos were used in the magazine.
Heres another photo of me on the Traitor Horn