WHAT WE BELIEVE : A LETTER FROM OUR FOUNDER
Alpine Provisions was born out of reasons very personal to me. You could even say that it is the embodiment of everything I value about life on this beautiful planet.
Ostensibly, I started Alpine Provisions because I desire to offer the world access to affordable, sustainable, organic products — but that’s just a front. The real reason I started this company is to give the next generation an opportunity to know and love nature by providing them with true wilderness experiences.
You see, when I was 16 I dropped out of school. I just didn’t fit in where I lived, in the suburbs. I was like the proverbial fish out of water, and it felt like I was suffocating. I bought a 1973 VW camper, restored it, and made plans to move to Vermont.
As vintage buses do, mine broke down three times on the way up to my destination. By the time I arrived, it was October. The leaves had turned and everything was bathed in a golden, auspicious glow. I knew I was on to something life-changing.
It took a few weeks to find a job and a home, but I was happily living out of my van, with my dog. Things were uncomplicated, and I felt more like “myself” than I knew was even possible. One morning my dog and I took a walk up a wooded, mountain trail. After about an hour I realized that I was hearing silence for the very first time in my life. Not the absence of noise, mind you, but the absence of man-made sounds. This silence was the absence of commerce, of steel and asphalt, of rubber meeting road, an absence of all the time-space agreements we organize our lives around.
What I could hear was birdsong. I could hear the breeze through the trees, and a creek babbling nearby. I could feel the soft body of the earth, and when I did, something wiry and tight unwound in my own body. A sense of calm washed over me. Not only could I think clearly, but I could know clearly. I had an epiphany: the mountains are my native element; they are my home.
By the following Autumn, I had moved to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. I spent three years exploring every nook and cranny of the Tetons. I lived in cabins, chopped wood and grew my own food. I felt alive and free.
Later, I moved to Boulder, Colorado where I bought and restored a cedar A-frame. I taught myself how to grow a garden in adverse, mountain conditions. I raised chickens, goats, and honeybees. All the beings on my land thrive there, just as I do.
It was on a hike in the nearby Indian Peaks Wilderness, when I reflected on the gratitude I feel for my life in the mountains, that I began thinking about what I could do to create the most positive impact for future generations.
I believe that if we want to improve the future of this planet, we have to show our youth there is more to the world than the constructed reality of social media and the constant demands that ping and buzz and direct our attention toward our little screens. We must inspire kids to value leadership over power, and stewardship over ownership. Yet, how can we expect future generations to be stewards of this planet if they don’t have the opportunity to explore it?
My current contribution to this issue is to create a scholarship that helps get disadvantaged youth into the woods, where they can breathe mountain air and learn about the sacredness of this planet. It is our youth’s birthright to know what it’s like to climb mountains, traverse valleys, hear silence, see sunsets, and jump off rocks into cold, mountain lakes.
The Alpine Provisions Scholarship Fund is fueled by a portion of all our sales. It provides three-week Outward Bound Leadership adventures to youth that are without means.
Alpine Provisions’ products are created with the world’s finest, sustainably sourced ingredients, and are scented with the finest saps, oils, and flowers the mountains have to offer. They are designed to elicit your own, joyful connection to nature, even if the jungle you’re navigating that day happens to be made of concrete.
I call that a win/win.
The world becomes a better place the moment we choose to make it so.
Sincerely,
Joshua Scott Onysko
Founder, Alpine Provisions.
THE NATURE OF ALPINE PROVISIONS
Everything we create is sourced with respect for people, planet, and purity. Our commitment is threefold: make products that elevate your daily self-care rituals to a daily nature plunge; establish for our industry a #LifeAfterPlastic, and give future generations an opportunity to develop meaningful relationships with the untamed wilderness.
Our products are loaded with nutrient-dense, skin-loving, ingredients, and are scented with sustainably-sourced, essential oil blends inspired by some of our favorite places in the natural world. Even better, we've taken our packaging plastic-free, so it is either 100% recyclable or compostable + renewable.
One percent of all our sales benefit a scholarship fund we have created in partnership with the Colorado Outward Bound School that provides young adults with outdoor leadership programs in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, Utah, Alaska, and Wyoming.
We believe the world becomes a better place the moment we choose to make it so.
ABOUT OUR FOUNDER
Joshua Scott Onysko is the founder and CEO of Pangea Organics, a skin and bodycare company he began in 2001 out of his garage. Since then, Pangea has become an international brand, recognized for its leadership in creating premium-quality formulations born from the marriage of pure ingredients and high integrity sourcing.
Joshua has been featured in Vogue, Vanity Fair, and The Wall Street Journal. He is a plant-based chef, self-taught perfumer, visual artist, and a sought-after public speaker. His speaking credentials include TedX, UCLA, and Cosmoprof.
As an entrepreneur, Joshua has proven his mantra many times over that “the fringe predicts the future.” Each brand he creates stewards the fringe by leading with cutting-edge formulations that honor purity, people, and planet. He knows that fair, forward-thinking business practices will positively shape the lives of his stakeholders – from employees to farmers – and those practices require a vision that stretches beyond the comfort of the mainstream.
Joshua commits to creating a plastic-free world, beginning with the packaging he uses for his brands. When he began Pangea Organics in 2001, going organic, vegan, and chemical-free was unconventional; now it's the gold standard. Alpine Provisions will be the first of his brands to go plastic-free, and the rest will soon follow. His vision is that this will pave the way for an all-industry phase-out of plastic.
Joshua has an unending curiosity about the world and a belief that opportunity is everywhere. As a kid, this made him resourceful; as an adult it allowed him to flourish. By age six he landed his first job delivering newspapers. At 14 he had a thriving fake ID business. By 16 he dropped out of school and began to work and travel his way around the world. Before he turned 21, he spent time in over 42 countries taking almost any job opportunity that arose. This included selling peaches in India and slinging knock-off Rolex watches and Luis Vuitton handbags in the red light district of Tokyo.
If you want to find Joshua, he’ll be at the cedar A-frame in the mountains above Boulder, Colorado that he shares with his chickens, miniature fainting goats, and a cat. He’ll likely be chopping wood, playing blues harp, or cooking elaborate vegan meals for his friends. If he’s not there, look for him on a dirt road, riding his dual-sport motorcycle, where he won’t be seeking adventure, but, rather, creating it.