Every year around April Fools' Day, we like to relate the story of how the modern Alpine Shop came to exist. It's not really a funny joke, it's just that it actually happened on April 1. Here's the story of the Mapmaker, the Vintner and the Fugitive:

In 1973, Bob Mooers–a local St. Louis climber, Army Map Service employee, and author of “Finding Your Way in the Outdoors” (still available used on-line)–convinced Chouinard Equipment, a growing climbing brand at the time, to open him as a dealer. So, Mooers started a climbing shop – in a small room upstairs from the home wine-making shop he was moonlighting on the side from his Army Map Service work. It took just one month for climbing to outsell wine-making, which ended up being abandoned when Mooers moved the climbing shop to a new, larger space.

Five years later, "Mooers Alpine" was thriving, but Mooers was looking to sell and move to the Northwest.

Current owner Russell “Holly” Hollenbeck came on the scene in 1978. Business was booming, but Mooers was looking to relocate to the Northwest. Hollenbeck, also an avid outdoorsman and regular customer of Mooers Alpine, had come to St. Louis to work in the city's banking and finance industry. However, a change in leadership at the company he worked for had soured him on the field, and he had taken to considering himself a "fugitive" from corporate life. While skiing at Snowbird in Utah during the winter of 1977, Hollenbeck broached the subject of purchasing Mooers Alpine with his family. On April 1, 1978, "Mooers Alpine" became "Alpine Shop" with Hollenbeck as the new owner.

He purchased the store, changing the name to Alpine Shop. His wife and co-owner, Lisa, transitioned from a legal career to focus full-time on serving St. Louis's outdoor community shortly after.

47 years later, climbing is still at our core, but over the years we have added gear, clothing, events and clinics for almost every type of outdoor enthusiast, from backpackers, hikers, campers, paddlers, and cyclists, to snowboarders and skiers, at four locations in Missouri and Kansas.

Those 47 years have been good to us and to our vendors, as well.  Our first supplier, Chouinard Equipment, ended up morphing into Great Pacific Iron Works, which went on to become Black Diamond and Patagonia. They remain our largest and one of our most admired vendor partners.

In 2023, Alpine Shop celebrated it's 50th anniversary in business, going back all the way to when Mooers founded it. And that's No Joke!