Fresno Dome- South Pillar
Rock Climbing– California
Total Time: 3:30
Distance: 2 miles
Elevation Gain: 700′
Crux: 5.7
Pitches: 4
Protection: Doubles to BD #3, nuts, many slings, quickdraws, 70m rope
Companions: Holly
Trailhead: Fresno Dome, no services
With the release of the new Fresno Dome guidebook by Graham Doe, I was itching to explore the area, having only hiked to the summit when we first moved to Coarsegold. There were plenty of multipitch options on the dome, but the classic South Pillar 5.7+ seemed like a good place to start. Climbing four pitches up a sea of knobs, it’s the most popular route on the dome and had been on my To-do List for some time. Despite being only a bit over an hour from home, the last 30 minutes of the drive are on slowly deteriorating dirt road, and Holly was feeling quite carsick by the time we arrived at the Fresno Dome trailhead.
Despite it being early September, large portions of the trail were still flooded from the historic winter, and I quickly got us off track following a use trail through the forest. When I recognized that the trail was trending away from the dome, we bushwacked over to another more well defined trail, although it was still unclear if this was the correct one. Following some rock cairns we eventually made our way down to a shallow saddle east of the main dome and found the climbers trail.
We cached extra snacks and water here, with plans to sport climb a bit in the afternoon if time allowed. The climbers trail was incredibly well defined, steeply skirting the east face of Fresno Dome down to Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah Buttress, one of the more accessible sport climbing crags on the Dome.
We continued past, now looking up at some of the longer lines on the wall, with a party of two starting up Whiskey Bill, another popular 5.7 multipitch. They pointed out the start of South Pillar about 100 feet past, and we flaked out the rope at the start of the first pitch. The crux of the entire climb is right off the deck, with a direct start to the first bolt going at 5.9, although the majority taking the 5.7+ traverse in from the right on knobs. I elected for the standard start, traversing over to the first bolt before climbing up past two more to a low angled hand crack flanked by knobs on both sides.
Beyond the first three bolts the rock became more low angled, with climbing in the 5.4-5.6 range with enourmous knobs and discontinuous cracks for protection. There was a somewhat awkward offwidth just before the first belay ledge, although this was easily avoided by stemming on knobs on either side. I built a quick anchor off a large boulder and brought up Holly to join me.
The second pitch headed up a sea of knobs along the South Pillar, and I slung knobs as I quickly climbed up the wall. There was supposedly a bolt in a shallow dish feature partway up the pitch, but I kept a bit too far right on the steeper 5.7ish rock missing it completely. The end of the second pitch finishes at the top of the detached South Pillar, and I slung a large boulder on the small perch to bring up Holly.
The start of the third pitch requires a short downclimb into the notch between the top of the South Pillar and the main wall, and it was difficult to see what that looked like from the belay. So Holly scouted it out on lead belay, skirting boulders to the left with a short downclimb into the notch where she was able to build a quick anchor in the crack on the opposite side, helping with any potential drag for the third pitch. She belayed me into the notch and I immediately swung into lead, following a thin crack trending right of a huge bulge in the rock, far easier than it had looked from below.
The rock became lower and lower angled as I climbed higher, quickly reaching a two bolt belay and start of the final pitch.
The fourth pitch climbs steep 5.5 knobs right off the belay skirting a roof to the right, but quickly fizzles to third class and a two bolt anchor at a false summit and additional two bolt belay. We had made great time on the route, only taking about two hours for the four pitches, and I belayed Holly as she downclimbed the 8′ notch to head over to the true summit.
We took a short break on the summit, eyeing the blooming clouds overhead that looked like they had the potential for rain, although none was forecasted. After a short snack, we took the summit trail back down to the shallow saddle where we had stashed our packs. Having made good time on the route, we decided to tack on a few more pitches, dropping back down to Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah Buttress before the heat of the day got the best of us and we headed out. We seemed to again lose the trail in the forest, hiking through swampy meadow on use trail back to the trailhead. From there we headed back down the bumpy road into Oakhurst, grabbing some BBQ at Smokehouse 41 before heading home.
