Craft MTN

Coffee and Cuisine

The Good, The Rad, The Chutney Santenello's Snack

Spencer Santenello

Craft Issue 5.1

Great food, like the best bike rides, can create and evoke cherished memories.

A long time ago, in Nairobi, Kenya, my favorite late-night bite was Masala fries—a local favorite that tasted like an African-Indian version of poutine. This fusion dish reflected the major East African city’s substantial Indian population, a remnant of English colonialism. The fries’ flavor was as colorful and pleasantly cheesy as the matatus (custom...

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Austin Hironaka’s career trajectory is anything but ordinary— he’s worked in construction and as a professional snowboarder. Now he owns and operates Hiro’s Hotrods, a custom build auto shop in Bellingham, Washington. Photo: Paris Gore

Profile

Grease & Grit Austin Hironaka Is on a Mission to Hotrod the World

Jann Eberharter

Craft Issue 5.1

Don’t tell Austin Hironaka what to do. In high school, his soccer coach told him he should quit snowboarding to focus on training more—so he quit the team and fully dedicated himself to snowboarding.

The move paid off and he spent the majority of his 20s traveling the world as a professional snowboarder, a dream realized by only a handful of the most talented athletes in the sport. But when that reality ended abruptly with a single...

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The San Juan Islands, seen from a west-facing viewpoint on Mount Erie in Anacortes, offer clues to researchers studying past wildfires in the Pacific Northwest. Photo: Ian Terry

Environment

Ancient Ash What The San Juan Islands Can Teach Us About Wildfires

Amanda Monthei

Craft Issue 5.1

What makes a temperate rainforest? Ferns, firs and moss, surely. The smell of wet cedar and tacky dirt; the quintessential drizzle, the suffocating fog, light refracting through old man’s beard.

There is the staggering green, the mild climate, maybe a light smell of saltwater.

What is less often associated with these ecosystems is fire—its presence is hardly considered and rarely seen in forests west of the Cascades. But these...

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Travis brews a pot of tea in the kitchen of the Leafspring, a tiny house he calls home. Photo: Ian Terry

Arts and Culture

Depths of Imagination Travis Skinner Wants Material to Inform Design

Elizabeth Kimberly

Craft Issue 5.1

It was a crisp, not-quite-spring day when I drove up Travis Skinner’s driveway near the north end of Lake Whatcom in Bellingham, Washington.

A light breeze coated the property with pollen grains, though residual frost from the previous night suggested winter still clung on. There wasn’t a mailbox or a house number visible near Travis’ residence on the property, but an array of sculptures, structures and wood scraps confirmed I was in...

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The Tippie family enjoys a mid-bike ride session on a playground near their home in North Vancouver with Alix and Brett enjoying a push from Sarah and Jessamy.

Profile

Whatever Works Art is More Than a Muse for Alix Tippie

Danielle Baker

Craft Issue 5.1

When Sarah and Brett Tippie welcomed their second daughter, Alix, in 2012, they dreamt of skiing British Columbia’s slopes and riding local mountain bike trails together as a family of four.

Sarah met Brett, a professional mountain biker and one of the original Fro Riders, at Crankworx, a gathering of some of the sport’s most enthusiastic fans and skilled riders that takes place each summer in Whistler.

“Being in the mountains...

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LATEST ISSUE Craft MTN 5.1

We believe there is something special about flipping through a carefully curated print magazine. Craft MTN Magazine can be experienced in all of it's tactile glory at many fine Pacific Northwest breweries, coffee shops, bike shops, and book stores from Seattle to Pemberton, B.C.

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