About Alpine Trail Co.

Some people find off-roading. Others grow up in the dirt and never really leave.

For me it started early — dirt bikes, quads, anything with a throttle and enough room to get sideways. At 12 years old, some of the most generous people I've ever known started bringing me out to Glamis. What might have been a one-time invite turned into what I can only describe as hundreds of trips over the years. I genuinely would not be who I am or be doing what I'm doing without their kindness. Those years in the sand dunes shaped everything that came after.

As I got older, during COVID we spent weeks at a time living out of a fifth wheel in the desert. When things broke — and things always break — we fixed them ourselves. That's where I got my first real look at what vehicles are actually capable of when you push them.

But the person who showed me what a 4Runner could truly do was my older brother.

Before he passed in 2020, his first big purchase was a 2006 4Runner he called Snowflake. He took that rig to Baja more times than I can count, chasing yellowtail and grouper, and took me along on some late-night trail runs that I'll never forget. Somewhere out there on those trails I understood — you don't need a purpose-built rig to go places most people never see. With some basic upgrades, the capabilities and adventure that are already waiting inside a stock rig are more than most people realize.

After he passed, I spent 2020 to 2024 building Snowflake into something worthy of his memory. Now it's undergoing a full restoration — new paint, a bare and refinished frame, new motor, new transmission, nearly everything touched. The goal is simple: finish what he started.

Along the way I kept running into the same problem: the parts I wanted for his build either didn't exist or weren't made the way I'd make them. So I started making them myself.

Alpine Trail Co. was born out of that — out of a small shop in eastern Idaho in 2024, out of a desire to build things the right way, and out of a rig that means more to me than I can put into words. Every bumper, skid plate, and MOLLE panel we produce is built for people who actually use their rigs. Because that's the only kind of product worth making