Brice and Karen Hoskin/Mountain Boy sledworks & Montanya Distillers.

• Author: Ryckman, Lisa
• Position: TRENDSETTERS - Brief article

Brice Hoskin loves wooden sleds, so he makes those. His wife, Karen, is a rum aficionado, so she makes that.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Then they sell them to people who want the best of either - or both.

The Hoskins' Mountain Boy sledworks opened in 2002 and has won renown as the nation's top maker of handmade wooden sleds, with names like Elegant Flyer and Bambino Superior. Both of those sleds are made in their Silverton workshop, which is being moved to Crested Butte. It produces just 400 of the company's 14,000 sleds: kicksleds, which are hard to outsource, and something really special.

"We make a line of really fancy sleds," Hoskin says. "People who want that incredibly cool gift and are willing to pay $500 - we have that amazing sled for them."

The other sleds, along with wagons and ornaments, are built in China and then imported (Brice Hoskin, who is fluent in Mandarin, inspects the China operation's products several times a year).

And then, there's the rum.

The Hoskins started Montanya Distillers three years ago, after they decided that the Rocky...