Vacation and Shipping schedule 2011

Ok... all you Spring order guys should be bailing off your walls already with tons of shiny new FISH stuff.  You Fall Season guys have some time to get your orders in for August delivery.  This rest of this year it is looking like this:

June:  Orders coming in and out as usual, unless it is for Portaledges.  You should order in JUNE, for something like a Mid July or August delivery.  Econoledges can be ordered any time and will ship sooner than ledges with a rain fly.

July:  We will be mostly closed for all of July.  It is too hot to climb anyway, but small items can be ordered and shipped as we are in and out all month.  You can order Portaledges, Haul Bags and big stuff to be shipped in August.

August: Shipping all month as much as we can.  All the June and July portaledges will be going out this month.  Regular orders will be filled as fast as possible, but on August 15th, we will be accepting no more orders for anything, unless they are for delivery in mid October.

September: Full on closed from 8/26 until 10/5.  We will not even be in the country.  Emails will probably not be answered, no confirmations will be going out, and the cone of silence will be lowered.  You can place orders and stuff like usual for delivery sometime in Oct.  All orders with a September delivery or drop dead date will be shipped for a timely arrival.

October:  Back into the office on 10/6 to a mountain of emails, rants, and hate mail.  We will probably be back up with production and shipping about a week after we get back.

November: Start getting your orders in here for Christmas delivery.

December:  The elves will be hard at work making your goodies until about Dec. 15th.  No more orders will be accepted after about the 15th.  The last shipping day will be Dec. 20th for arrival by Christmas.  After the 20th, we will be closed until well into the New Year.

Hope this helps for your trip planning and keeps you in the loop a bit as far as getting some gear for your next project.

Happy ledge customer!

Before vacation we sent out a ton of ledges for mostly visiting British climbers.  The best way to get these goods to international climbers is to ship the product directly to the Yosemite Post Office.  Cheap, easy, and it will be there waiting for you when you arrive.

Reports of success are starting to filter in from this latest batch of wall climbers:

by David Coley on 09:47 Tue
Russ, bye the way the Fish ledge arrived on time at the post office just like you said it would. Thanks.
We got hit by a rain storm on Lurking Fear in mid September and spent a night with three of us on a double whammy, so who says Fish ledges are too small. And unlike a BD one, you can put it up in the dark by yourself.

Portaledge waterproofing

From an email exchange a while back.  Good info:

On May 4, 2010, at 11:07 AM, Hoffman, Dan F wrote:
Fish,
My 5-season fly is pretty old (10+years) and I tested it in the backyard with a hose and it is no longer waterproof

Portaledge Flagging cont.....

To further rant on this subject.... I just finished repairing a ledge that was flagged for a couple of walls.  Slow ascent style walls.  Out all day for weeks kinda walls.  The UV exposure to this ledge had shrunk the bed to the point where a hammer was needed to get the ledge together, and something like a come-a-long to get it apart.  I had to cut off over an inch off of each tube to get the ledge working again as it should.  Food for thought.....

Portaledge Review

Below is a link to a good overview of available portaledges from a year or so ago.  Big Wall Kate put this together for a project she was working on, I think for one of the magazines.  Anyway, it has tons of good info in there, some wall tips, and photos.  As a "by the way", Kate has changed over and is now using a FISH ledge for all her ascents.

Portaledge Review

If you ordered a portaledge right now...

Production and delivery for April is full.  The next delivery window for ledges ordered RIGHT NOW is late May at the earliest!  So, if you are planning a trip and need a ledge, I'd get on that train pronto.

Some new info!!!

Here is some updated info:

Our mailing address has changed!

Do not send anything to our old P.O. Box 995.
Send everything to:
FISH
HC1 Box 696
Joshua Tree, Ca. 92252
Phone number is 760.362.4697
Fax number is 760.666.3950
email is info@FishProducts.com


If you are sending us something via UPS or FedX, email us for a street address.

Back to business

We are back from our Winter Hiatus, and after going through about 400 emails, we will be ready to serve.  Thanks for hanging in there and we'll be responding and shipping just as soon as we can.

Merry Christmas and see ya next year!

Thanks for the skate board Santa!!

Thanks for all the orders and hopefully they have all arrived in time to get under the tree.  There is no more time to make and ship orders for Christmas, so please don't beg.  Orders not needed for Christmas are always welcome, but your confirmation email might be a bit late since we are going to be out of town until after the New Year.  See ya in Twenty-Eleven, hopefully with all sorts of new goodies and a new and improved FISH web site.  Keep checking back here for a launch date.

Do you FLAG your ledge??

I've posted this Q over on SuperTopo, but you can answer here as well.  These were the questions:

How many people actually flag their ledge these days?

How many flagged ledges do you voyeurs see up on El Cap, as a percentage of total ledges seen?

And if you don't, why don't you flag your ledge?


Thanks for any feedback. As for 2011 there is probably going to be some portaledge changes since the 2010 prototype ledges outfitted specifically for flagging were a big hit.
Let me know about it!


Here is some more info on flagging from Climbing Magazine:  Flagging your Ledge


Here is a previous blog post I made in May about ledge flagging and how it will damage your ledge.

Christmas!

Production schedule is pretty darn full.  If you wanted anything, you might have a couple more days to order, then lights out.

Orders not needed by 12/25 are still welcome.

D5 Hammer Production

photo by Vershke Group

At last, the cool new D5 hammers are freshly minted and ready to pound some iron!  This is the long running  (5 years from concept to fruition?) project from over on Supertopo.  All FISH did was tack up some slings, so toss out a big hand to Theron Moses, Joseph Healy, Conrad Anker and a bunch of other SuperTacoites that made it happen.
Here are links to the whole story:


Who's in?

Who's in II?

I want one list of people!

Actual hammer Production

Hammer Time announcement

You  can order your hammer right here from The Vershke Group

Closed for Thanksgiving

FISH will be closed for Thanksgiving starting today, and will back in action on Dec. 1st.

If you have any wild dreams of getting some FISH stuff under the tree for Christmas, I would suggest ordering right now.  There are already a bunch of Portaledge orders in here and production time is getting short.  The last day to order for Christmas delivery will probably be around Dec 10th.  After that all bets are off for getting your goods on time.

John "the Gambler" Rosholt has been found.

Johns remains have been recovered in Red Rocks.  Many posts, stories and pics can be found here on SuperTopo and over on Mountain Project.

Here is an article by Pete Takeda that will supply the back story and some history on John: The Gambler

Christmas Ordering

Now would be a good time to start thinking about getting your orders in for Christmas.  Usually the last shipping date for a Christmas delivery is about the 17th of December.  Since ledges are usually a multi-week affair to get manufactured and shipped, orders for any ledges should be in here by mid November.  Help us out and order early.  Every now and again we like to do Christmas too. Thanks!

Worldwide Tubing crunch!

It seems that all the 4130 in the world is either in Germany or Chicago, and they are holding on to it.  I just scored a few hundred feet from a steel mill here in Los Angeles, so if you are interested in getting a ledge in the near future, now would be a good time to order up.  This batch of tubing has been on order FOR MONTHS, and just arrived yesterday and is already being chopped for ledges.

Ledge parts are in!

The big news is our new supplier has cracked off a batch of Portaledge parts.  No easy feat.  It was looking like we would not have any parts to make ledges for many months unless we found a new machinist pronto.  All is well in Ledgeville.... Whew!

Big News on the horizon

We are still swamped and gagging, but.... hopefully good news soon.
Stay tuned!

Refurb Haul Bag for sale (SOLD)

I have a Deluxe Haul Bag that is just taking up space over here.  The story:  A couple of wall bailers sent it back as defective since there was a stitch low down on the bag that was missing.  They said they hauled it 2 pitches before bailing.  Obviously they had no idea on how to pack a haul bag since they totally smoked the collar closure and had some other suspect wear patterns on the bag.

So, I replaced the collar with a new one, fixed the stitching flaw and put some PlastiDip on the main haul strap bond areas.  Overall this bag is about a 8.5 or 9 on a scale of 1 to 10.  Yours for $99 plus shipping.

SORRY, THIS ITEM HAS SOLD!  KEEP CHECKING BACK FOR MORE DEALS

Saturation Point

FISH has reached a production saturation point.  What does that mean?  Well, the amount of orders in here exceeds the available hours to make the stuff and get it out to you guys that are going on vacation this summer.  So, if you want a ledge for this summer, you are probably out of luck.  If you want some trinkets, we can probably whip them up and get them out to you, but CHECK WITH US FIRST via email.  Anyone that already has an order in here is now our top priority. Your drop dead dates are in our current production schedule and slated for an on-time delivery.  Those that snoozed, loozed (is that a word??)

If things go well, we will be ready for the the Fall glut of orders.  If you want something for Fall, get your order in NOW.  If you want something for a June, July, or Aug delivery, you might be hosed.  If we ever catch up, this message will self destruct.

NEWS FLASH 9/1/10:  WE ARE STILL WAY BUSY BUT HAVE RECOVERED ENOUGH TO ACCEPT WHATEVER ORDERS YOU WANT TO TOSS IN HERE.  PLAN AHEAD FOR MAXIMUM PRODUCT ENJOYMENT.