UW Magazine

Chairmen of the Boards

Twin brothers carve a path as snow sports engineers

UW alums Bryce and Tyler Kloster are the makers of Karakoram bindings for splitboards and snowboards

By Derek Belt
UW Magazine
October 2023

A lifelong snowboarder and certified Level 3 instructor who taught lessons at Alpental for 10 years, Bryce Kloster knows how to shred. But something felt off about the splitboard he borrowed from his wife on a crisp winter day in Utah’s Wasatch mountains.

A splitboard is a snowboard that comes apart lengthwise in the middle so that each half can be used like skis. You hike up the hill in a fusion of snowshoeing and cross-country skiing, snap them together at the top and savor the ride back down. Most splitboarding is done in the backcountry and away from the more popular ski resorts.

Bryce was no stranger to this kind of touring, and he didn’t complain when his boots felt wobbly that day in the borrowed bindings. He had a better idea. “We’d always wanted to do something in snowboarding and really wanted to engineer something, but we didn’t have an idea we thought we could build a company around,” says Bryce, who was designing boat lifts at the time for a small business in Kent. “I called [my brother] when I got home and was like, ‘This is what we can do in snowboarding!’ I was pretty sure we could figure something out that was better than what I was just using.”

Today, Bryce, ’03, and Tyler, ’03, Kloster are co-owners of Karakoram, a North Bend-based manufacturer of high-performance splitboard and snowboard bindings. The identical twins, both mechanical engineering majors at UW, assemble all of Karakoram’s gear in-house at their 14,900-square-foot shop across from city hall with a stunning view of Mount Si high above.

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October 8, 2024

The Smooth Sip of Success

Georgetown Brewing co-founders are soaring

Longtime pals Manny Chao and Roger Bialous have made Georgetown Brewing a Seattle favorite

By Derek Belt
UW Magazine
June 2023

When Manuel “Manny” Chao, ’94, walks into a bar in Seattle’s historic Georgetown neighborhood, he is instantly recognized by the staff and many of the patrons. “Hey Manny!” they all say as he waves hello and happily sits down at the corner of the bar, where I join him a few moments later.

“The corner is my favorite spot,” he says, settling in. “It’s where you get the best service, it’s where the action is, and because you can actually have a conversation with somebody.”

For Chao, the son of Chinese and Taiwanese immigrants whose parents made their way in America as restaurant owners, conversations are currency. He’s in the relationship business, after all, having started his career selling craft beer to local hotspots as the first employee of Redmond’s Mac and Jack’s Brewery. Now, he is thriving as co-founder of Georgetown Brewing—the largest independent brewery in Washington and maker of Pacific Northwest favorites Manny’s Pale Ale, Roger’s Pilsner, Bodhizafa IPA and Johnny Utah Pale Ale.

“When I was a kid, I liked hanging out at the restaurant, so for me there was always an appeal to being a small-business owner,” says Chao, who fell in love with craft beer in college and hosted tastings for his Zeta Psi fraternity brothers. At the UW’s Foster School of Business, Chao famously persuaded many classmates to do group projects on breweries. Continue reading “The Smooth Sip of Success” →

February 24, 2024

The Huard brothers are Huskies for life

Deep purple

From Puyallup to the pros and back, Damon and Brock Huard bleed purple and gold as they blaze a bright trail as alums

By Derek Belt
Columns Magazine
June 2016

Los Angeles can look awfully good to a kid from the Pacific Northwest. Just thinking about the bright lights and endless summers can warm you up on a chilly, damp afternoon in Puyallup.

That was the case for 18-year-old Brock Huard in the winter of 1994. The nation’s top high school quarterback prospect and younger brother of then-UW signal caller Damon Huard, Brock had just returned home from a recruiting visit to UCLA. And he loved it there.

“I was seriously considering” joining the Bruins, he recalls. But the Huskies won out and Brock succeeded his older brother as Washington’s starting quarterback in 1996 after Damon graduated and went to the National Football League. Brock, too, would end up in the professional ranks, leaving as UW’s all-time leading passer after erasing several of Damon’s single-season and career passing records.

Damon, himself a star prospect out of Puyallup High School, didn’t waver in making his college decision back in 1991. “There was no doubt,” he says today. “I had always dreamed of being a Husky. To stay in my own backyard, it was a dream come true for a young guy.”

Things weren’t as clear-cut for Brock, the Gatorade National Player of the Year. There was just too much to like about the beautiful Southern California sunshine. Ultimately, he decided on the UW because staying home meant staying in the Northwest—for good.

“Damon and my dad both said if you want to lay down roots here, if you want to be part of this community, you could go win the Heisman Trophy at UCLA but you’re not coming back here. You’re just not going to have that kind of connection to the community. You’re going to be a UCLA guy in a purple-and-gold town. There was some real wisdom in that,” says Brock, now 39. Continue reading “The Huard brothers are Huskies for life” →

July 25, 2015

A whole new ball game: Husky Stadium’s epic remodel

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July 20, 2015

Bob Rondeau is ‘The Voice of the Huskies’

Air force

Play-by-play man Bob Rondeau has seen the highs and lows of UW sports and is not afraid to tell it like it is

By Derek Belt
Columns Magazine
December 2003

SEATTLE — In October of 2000, the football game between Washington and Stanford was put on hold late in the third quarter while paramedics attended to downed Husky safety Curtis Williams.

Silence crept over Stanford Stadium following the helmet-to-helmet collision that 18 months later would claim the life of the 22-year-old senior. And though time itself seemed to stop, the radio broadcast did not.

Bob Rondeau was just as dumbfounded as everyone else as he kept a watchful eye on the action from the press box high above the field. With no television coverage that day, he was well aware listeners were glued to the radio, thirsting for every last drop of drama and detail.

And as the veteran broadcaster watched the tragedy unfold through a pair of binoculars, there was only one thing he could do—just keep talking.

The game eventually resumed and, despite a fallen teammate in the hospital, the Huskies pulled out an improbable 31-28 victory on Marques Tuiasosopo’s last-second touchdown pass. It was an amazing comeback for the UW and an unforgettable experience for its play-by-play announcer.

“When I got to the end of the game, I was ready to cry,” says Rondeau. “It was emotionally the most memorable game I’ve ever been involved with.” Continue reading “Bob Rondeau is ‘The Voice of the Huskies’” →

July 17, 2015

Football isn’t what matters most to Jake Locker

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July 8, 2015

Cleaning up the trash on Mount Everest

Clean climb

Mountain climber was so horrified to see Mount Everest covered with garbage, he decided to clean it up

By Derek Belt
Columns Magazine
December 2009

SEATTLE — At the top of the world, where the jagged peaks and snow-covered slopes of Mount Everest hug even the highest of clouds, garbage besets the brilliance. Empty oxygen bottles. Shredded nylon tents. Solid waste from decades of climbing expeditions once spoiled the long haul up, rendering the world’s tallest mountain a giant junkyard in the sky.

Brent Bishop, ’93, grew up in a climbing family and knew Mount Everest was dirty. At 27 years old, he was determined to do something about it.

“It was a real symbol,” Bishop says. “If we can’t keep the highest mountain in the world clean, what hope is there for other areas?”

Bishop’s M.B.A. program at the University of Washington tackled cutting-edge environmental management issues and inspired him to create the Buy Back Program, which pays Sherpas—local climbers employed by mountaineering expeditions as guides—a few extra dollars to bring used oxygen bottles and other trash down the mountain to Base Camp.

Continue reading “Cleaning up the trash on Mount Everest” →

July 7, 2015

Rat City Rollergirls: Not what you think

By Derek Belt
Columns Magazine
March 2010

SEATTLE — What comes to mind when you think of the Rat City Rollergirls? If it’s tattooed women and fast, physical action, you’re not alone. But that’s not the whole story.

Meet Valerie Morris, ’08. She’s tall, pretty and goes by the skater name Valtron 3000. She’s also a scientist, having earned her Ph.D. in molecular and cellular biology from the University of Washington.

As a postdoctoral fellow at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, she concentrates on leukemia research, but says, “When I go out there and skate, I get to be someone totally different.” Continue reading “Rat City Rollergirls: Not what you think” →

June 29, 2015