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Don Lauria
Trad climber
Bishop, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 7, 2018 - 08:40am PT
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Marty,
My question is: Where did Chessler get the set? R.J. Secor(RIP) never responded to my inquiries back in the 70s when he was seen displaying the set at Stoney Point.
Thanks for the photos.
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Don, I am glad you brought up the "origin" of Chessler's Dolt set! If I remember correctly..................................
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karabin museum
Trad climber
phoenix, az
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Don - The reason I posted this to you was to show that your story was correct about the missing polished Dolt piton set. With so many of our great golden era heroes passing away these days I felt the need to inform you to bring closer to the piton set story, since you are getting up there in the years as well. I did not post this so you will now attack Michael in any way since Michael just so happened to end up with the Dolt set.
I personally spent 3 days with Michael and found him to be a great man. I REALLY enjoyed my visit and I give him my hugest respect. I now have a really great friend which I will be hanging out with again next summer. Michael’s deep passion is in the mountaineering and climbing books and over time he has traded a lot of stuff with many great climbers ending up with a rather large pile of gear that he kept throwing to the side since gear was not his interest, other than signed pieces or Hillary ice axes. He honestly really could not remember where any of this gear came from, possibly through trades from people for books, and or legitimately buying out estates from climbers that have died to obtain the books where in the lot, gear was also present. I see this on ebay all of the time as so may precious treasures are being sold through estate liquidation companies.
My thoughts on the set was that somehow he ended up with RJ Secor’s rack and thank God that he did which preserved these items for all to enjoy in museum form. If it wasn’t for Michael, all of these items would have been lost to the world. The original Dolt rack probably came through the RJ situation as well. To me this proves RJ was the thief of the Dolt shop all along, which is sad since RJ was a respected climber.
Even Dolt from the other side is telling me that he has Michaels back as well. RJ is your target of frustration in this story. Michael is a total hero in my history book! Don, or can somebody mention to Audrey that I need to get in contact with her. I have a few messages from Dolt that Dolt recently sent to me wanting to give to her.
for Audrey - karabin714(at)gmail.com
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Gnome Ofthe Diabase
climber
Out Of Bed
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Marty,
Blessings of light to you on your path.
Call mouse, Brian, he is touch with Audrey
mfm's # (209)947-5559
I so value my one Dolt pin And your passion for the presevation is a fantastic gift to climbers.
I will try to make contact with a potential source, though, the "Gunks Jessi hoard may have been it.? you & Roots hit that I hope?
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BooDawg
Social climber
Butterfly Town
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I have emailed Audrey to revisit this thread...
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karabin museum
Trad climber
phoenix, az
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Gnome Ofthe Diabase and BooDawg - Thank you so much for forwarding the message to Audrey. She will very much love the message I have for her, and how I received the message will be worth her many tears.
Mouse actually gets the greatest credit and Blessings for the many tears I have been within for the last two weeks.
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karabin museum
Trad climber
phoenix, az
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Sep 26, 2018 - 08:20pm PT
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I will be stepping into the shoes of the Dolt..............
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karabin museum
Trad climber
phoenix, az
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Sep 28, 2018 - 08:26pm PT
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Big PROPS to Ashby!!!
This is a older photo of the Dolt hangers I have in the museum and there are a few not showing on this photo yet. But Ashby just came through adding two of the missing Dolt hangers. I am so psyched to finally have these two hangers for the museum!
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karabin museum
Trad climber
phoenix, az
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Sep 28, 2018 - 08:32pm PT
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Big PROPS to Ashby!!!
Wow this item is a total gem!
Dolt was first to make nuts out of magnesium and Ashby just donated this piece to the museum!
Lopchock 88. Amazing how light it is!
A fantastic addition to the museum for sure! Ashby wow.......just amazing!
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Roots
Mountain climber
Redmond, Oregon
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Nov 14, 2018 - 08:06am PT
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Amazing!
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aspendougy
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Nov 14, 2018 - 02:19pm PT
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Does anyone have a photo of a Dolt Crud Bit, which is supposedly a smaller version of the Rurp?
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Gnome Ofthe Diabase
climber
Out Of Bed
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Nov 14, 2018 - 04:46pm PT
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The DOLT BIT: dead centerThe beautiful thing about Marty's obsessive nature is that everything he has he has made a note of.
"Once in a while you get shown the light
In the strangest of places if you look at it right"
As always Thanks again Marty.
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ClimbingOn
Trad climber
NY
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Nov 14, 2018 - 07:20pm PT
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That collection of Dolt equipment is simply breathtaking.
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Jamesthomsen
Social climber
Mammoth Lakes, California
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Nov 15, 2018 - 09:59am PT
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karabin museum
Trad climber
phoenix, az
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Jan 24, 2019 - 11:10am PT
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DOLT SHOW REVIEW
First of all a huge thanks to my show helpers Stephie Ruiz and Cat Ruiz, for assisting me in showing William “Dolt” Feuerer’s life in its entirety. This was a Arizona Mountaineering Club meeting night presentation which was shown on the big stage at the Granite Reef Senior Center in Scottsdale AZ. Overall in the 1 1/2 hour live presentation, 190 photos were shown and talked about, which gave the audience of 80+ people a historical view of the amazing life of Bill Feuerer, and what was possibly going on in his mind throughout his life. 30 years of my personal Dolt research, all of the Supertopo Forum threads on the Dolt, Summit magazine Dolt advertisements, and research from LilaBiene was all used to create the timeline events that occurred in Bills life.
Stephie was in charge of the slide projector and occasionally was on stage as Yvon Chouinard and for other stage stuff. Cat was at the podium in charge of speaking Dolt history notes, speaking Dolt poetry, and was on stage as Tom Frost and Don Lauria. I was Bill Dolt telling and reliving my life story. It was a honor for me to be able to share with a audience this story of the Dolt that I believe is the “greatest love story in climbing history.”
The show starts off with me introducing myself, then I summons Bill to tell his story through me. I eventually put on Bills black climbing hat where I became Bill, and then the presentation and fun began. I am showing a few photos on this post to give you an idea of how the Dolt show was put together. Within the photo captions the story continues…..
Throughout the showing of the Totem Pole, Dolts time on Cathedral Rock, and Dolts Nose Route experience, in the show it was mentioned many times how Dolt was quoting the Bible more and more as he became uneasy with the climbing he was doing. Basically terrified at times and eventually he gave up on completing the Nose Route first ascent. Dolt continued to create more pitons and bolts for the Nose Route to be completed. Dolt also began his climbing company named DOLT. Yvon Chouinard is new on the scene and Tom Frost as well who become friends with the Dolt. They enjoy time together climbing in Tahquitz. Dolt likes Yvon’s friendship as they both share in creating climbing gear, and Dolt advertises and sells Chouinard gear through the Dolt Hut.
Dolt in frustration works to understand what is now occurring with his friendship with Yvon and Tom. For the show the pictures were interrupted as the house lights went on and Cat and Steph came up on stage to show the friendship dynamics to the audience.
I think the final straw with Dolts friendship with Yvon, is shown in the Chouinard “firsts list.” Throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s Dolt was selling all of the items that Chouinard had produced. Yvon now lists that the Chouinard ringless angle pitons were made 1957/1958 before Dolts ringless angle pitons (which were used on the Nose FA). Both of them didn’t know that Norton Smith had created the first ringless angle pitons in 1950/1951, and were positioning for the first ringless angle piton credit. Chouinard ringless angles were introduced in early 1961.
During 1962/1963 time Yvon went into the army and Chouinard business slowed to almost a halt. Dolt decided to put his time into his job at McDonald Douglas so Dolt announced he was out of the climbing gear business. In 1964 time Yvon and Tom make the headlines completing the FA of the North American Wall, and Yvon FA of the Muir Wall. So Yvon and Tom are climbing more and more huge walls and risking their lives etc to do it. I feel that these amazing ascents played a little on Dolts consciousness since Dolt didn’t complete the Nose FA. And now the Chouinard climbing company is Yvon and Tom together. I feel that at this time dolt goes into vendetta mode to outdo the Chouinard company. Now Dolt becomes the “Master Craftsman to Mountaineers.” All Dolt gear becomes works of art as true passion is put into everything Dolt creates.
At this point in the Dolt Show the house lights were turned back on and the audience has just seen a few hundred Dolt products within photos. It is Christmas time 1971. The stage turns into a Christmas party scene and a telephone conversation between Don Lauria and the Dolt takes place. Possibly the last words the Dolt has spoken before he committed suicide Christmas time 1971. Cat returns to the podium and shows the two Summit magazine ads stating the Dolt is dead, in Memoriam to the Dolt, by Don Lauria.
Marty’s Philosophy on Dolts death:
 Dolt wanted to be recognized as a mountaineer, but at the same time the climbing scared him.
The main drive for getting back into business making climbing gear was to show up Yvon and Tom, but in the end the realization hit Dolt that Yvon and Tom were never in competition with the Dolt. Dolt possibly looked around his shop and didn’t even know what his Dolt gear was for, once the vendetta mode was removed.
Dolt created everything by himself. “I did everything for others to show others how creative I was…..maybe I should have let the others more into my life. That way I could share the creation process, over just showing the final polished product. Everything I created was a gift for somebody to enjoy.”
Tired of doing both but couldn’t decide on what was better. Going with creating Dolt products full time, or just concentrating on McDonald Douglas job and no more Dolt.
Dolts girlfriend Ann recently moved to Alaska.
“Maybe if I didn’t name myself as the Dolt, I would not have worried about being….perfect. I hid from my silly mistakes to show others how perfect I can be….just look at my creations and you will see the perfection!!!”
And what perfection do I have now?
I did everything for everybody and now….
…..I find myself still alone.
……Was I even loved?”
Besides life’s everyday pressures, imagine all of these big things apexing in the Dolts mind all at the exact same time. Once again I turned out the stage house lights, and then sat on a chair fiddling with my Dolt hat while staring at the audience. Then when I had total silence in the room I dropped my hat to the floor turning the Dolt - back to Marty again. Cat began telling the audience of how Ann in Alaska had a child which Dolt never knew about. The show ends with 5 photos accompanied with poetry captions written by LilaBiene from Supertopo forum “ In memory of Bill “Dolt” Feuerer”. The poetry speaks of how much the Dolt is still Loved, to this day!
Again I give a huge THANKS to Stephie Ruiz and Cat Ruiz for assisting me in putting together this awesome Dolt Show. For the three of us the message of the show was tough. The script was broken into three sections; early climbing, later 1960s Dolt products, and end section. The end section was hard to go through without tearing up every time we rehearsed it. I thank everybody who shared in the Supertopo forum posts for preserving great history for future climbers to ponder and enjoy. This Dolt Show gave me the opportunity to fully place myself into Dolts world, and being the one to share the story of his life…… was a great honor!
A huge THANKS also goes out to Jonah Phung for capturing the Dolt Show on film and creating a movie.
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jogill
climber
Colorado
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Jan 24, 2019 - 11:51am PT
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Guess I was pretty oblivious to all this going on in the late 50s and early 60s, not being a Californian. Yvon would mention Bill occasionally, but in more of a playful, not derogatory manner. Thanks for your excellent post!
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Fritz
Social climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Jan 24, 2019 - 11:58am PT
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Gneiss work & great story Marty. Thanks for sharing it.
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