Fischer moved to the Haight-Ashbury, went to San Francisco Art Institute for a semester, and then dropped out of college. He registered for the draft as a conscientious objector at the onset of the Vietnam War and was assigned to civilian duty. In 1967 he discovered Yosemite Valley's big walls and started rock climbing. He moved to the Eastern Sierra, taking up residence first at the Cardinal Village Resort in Bishop, California then at Fobes 40 in Crowley Lake, California with his first wife, Alex Fischer and their son.
