In 1933, Dawson, Eichorn and Dick Jones made the first ascent of what was later named Dawson Minaret in the Minarets. On the Sierra Club's annual High Trip, Dawson, along with Neil Ruge and Alfred Weiler, made a first ascent of the highest peak in The Pinnacles, two miles (3 km) west of Hutchison Meadow. With his sister Fern Dawson, he climbed Pilot Knob. With Bahlah Ballantine and Neil Ruge, he made a first ascent of unnamed Peak 13,332 near Mount Darwin. On July 25, 1933, he again surveyed the forbidding Devils Crags. In the days that followed, Dawson and other Sierra Club members made several successful ascents of the various summits. Later, he made a possible first ascent of Rambaud Peak, bringing his younger brother, Muir Dawson, along on the climb. With Eichorn, he pioneered a new route to Middle Palisade, climbing the (later named) Norman Clyde Peak along the way..