I think Jeff Lindsay formed Altitude out of the ashes of Mountain Goat which closed in 1995. However it failed to meet his business aspirations (I don’t know who he expected to make 12,000 frames for!) and went out of business towards the end of 1996. I haven’t heard whether it was voluntary or he had no choice, but I picked up a sense that there were still raw nerves over it in Chico. He went back to making artistic glassware I believe.
We heard that a completely new company called Enigma Design and Fabrication was formed late in 1996 and was given a contract to build Hots and Kus. That doesn’t necessarily contradict what it says in the 1997 Kona catalogue. That catalogue would have been produced early in 1996, long before the decision was taken to close Altitude. And you would assume that most if not all of the production for the 1997 model year was completed before Altitude closed down. Enigma may have just been responsible for the 98 model year frames, which were the last Hots and Kus to be made.