Going Deep
March/April 2008

Looking to get away and come back not only feeling rejuvenated but with a new perspective? There are a whole slew of adventures out there designed to leave you with more than just a tan. By Lucy Burningham

It was a pristine summer day in the Rocky Mountains when Kate Linton, a 48-year-old psychotherapist from Connecticut, looked up at a 30-foot-high rock wall and felt her legs shaking. She’d been dreading this moment
for days, and the wall she’d been imagining now looked like Mount Everest. Comfortable crossing mountain passes on foot or spinning along country roads on a bicycle, Kate had never tried rock climbing before. But there she was, strapped into a harness in front of a group of women she’d met just three days earlier.

“I was terrified,” she remembers. “I felt vulnerable. I was afraid I wasn’t going to be able to do it like everyone else, then I’d become embarrassed and cry.” And she did cry, at the top, after a successful climb, overcome by joy and a sense of accomplishment. It was just one breakthrough moment during a five-day getaway, created by Mind Over Mountains, which offers adventure retreats for women in Colorado, that helped Kate approach turning 50 with a renewed sense of self.

By taking that journey, Kate joined a growing number of women who are abandoning the traditional beach-and-a-trashy-novel vacation for a deeper, more meaningful retreat from normal life, one that rejuvenates the body and the soul through meaningful introspection—in other words, a spiritual adventure. Some choose journeys based on volunteer opportunities, specific religious practices, or a more secular approach that might include sports, other physical challenges, or the chance to explore the outdoors.

If you think a spiritual adventure sounds like something for other people, touchy-feely types with too much time on their hands, take a minute to think about the past couple of vacations you took. Which moments stand out? What about the trip continued to affect you long after you returned to your normal routine? And, most importantly, how did you feel when you returned home and walked through your front door—refreshed or in need of a vacation to recover from your vacation?

Former extreme skier Kristen Ulmer created Ski to Live, a four-day Zen Buddhist-based ski clinic for intermediate to professional skiers and snowboarders, in part because she noticed a lack of consciousness in the way people approached time away from daily life.

“People like to habitually be busy, even on their vacations, so they come home exhausted,” she says. “During a spiritual vacation, you experience something substantial that makes you feel completely recharged, something that feeds your soul rather than just giving you a great tan.”

Ironically, many people who show up at Kristen’s clinics don’t realize that they’ve signed up for a departure from the norm. Many Ski to Live participants, who take ski vacations on a regular basis, simply relish the chance to improve their skills on the slopes with skiing legend, Kristen Ulmer. But during the retreats, carving and turning become extensions of the ideas about ego and consciousness presented by Zen Master Genpo Roshi every evening. Kristen reinforces Genpo’s lessons about love and fear on the slopes through simple techniques, like reminding skiers that sitting back on their heels means they’re holding back and not committing to forward motion. Sometimes those lessons reveal a pattern in everyday life.

As a result, even the most focused, driven athletes come away from Ski to Live with a new perspective, which, ultimately, can improve their physical performance.

“We get so stuck in a certain way of thinking, being, and doing, to the point where we can’t see ourselves,” Kristen says. “You may benefit from an expanded perspective that will open you up to greater and more imaginative possibilities than you could have come up with on your own.”

Pioneering female climber Kim Reynolds founded Mind Over Mountains because she saw an opportunity to change women’s lives over the long term through a concentrated experience. Her retreats, which range from mother/daughter to themes related to power or being present, offer outdoor summer sports, including hiking and climbing, combined with life-coaching sessions, journaling, yoga, healthy meals, and spa treatments.
Kim recommends a spiritual adventure to anyone who longs to know herself better. “It will change your life,” she says. “You won’t look at it in the same way in the end.”

Sound heavy? It can be. But if the idea of rocking the boat—turning your life upside down and sorting through the contents—sounds scary, consider signing up for one of these trips immediately.

There’s something to be said for alone time—a solo road trip or weekend away with hiking boots and a journal can inspire plenty of “aha moments.” But all organized spiritual adventures share an important common denominator: other people, complete strangers to one another.

Mali Leach, a 37-year-old mom and healing practitioner who lives in Boise, Idaho, has attended Ski to Live and a spirituality-based retreat called the Nine Gates Mystery School (see sidebar) not only for the potential lessons learned but also for the company.

“There’s a particular energy when you gather in a group that you might not feel when you’re by yourself,” she says. “While each individual has the capacity to meditate and create a space of stillness, that capacity grows when you’re with people who you’ll come to realize are dear friends.” Years later Mali remains close to many of the people she met during her retreats.

Think about it. If you’re trying to gain a new perspective on yourself and your life, old friends could reinforce comfortable patterns and ways of thinking. And there’s something liberating about being around new people that might help you let go and open up in ways you didn’t realize were possible.

At Mind Over Mountains, groups that range from four to 12 women sometimes include a few friends, but mostly the women introduce themselves to one another for the first time on the opening night. “We create a safe, supportive environment so that women can share whatever they’re comfortable sharing. It unfolds really naturally,” explains Kim. “We all have so much in common—they quickly realize that they’re not alone in what they’re experiencing.”
Kim frequently facilitates the retreats as a leader, another important aspect of any spiritual retreat. By having a guide, someone who leads discussions and activities, your journey stays somewhat focused even as you discover the unexpected.

“You wouldn’t perform an operation on yourself, and yet we try to manage and facilitate our own personal growth experiences and wind up missing so much,”
Kristen says. “Having a teacher who will facilitate your experience will open you up to many things you may
otherwise miss.”

The connection between mind and body runs deep. Just ask yogis who work their bodies into poses before sitting down to meditate or athletes who visualize their performance before competing. For the same reasons, many spiritual adventures demand physical activity not to mention a little bit of physical pampering as well.

At Ski to Live, everyone starts the day by doing yoga before catching the first chairlift. “I cannot think of a
better way to quiet the mind than to do something athletic,” Kristen says. “You drop out of your thoughts and into the body, then drop into something much deeper.”

Kim says she uses various physical activities, from hiking to rock climbing, to help teach powerful lessons. “Being outdoors, pushing yourself, and overcoming your fears provides great metaphors for life,” she says. For example, when a woman looks at a potential climb as overwhelming, Kim talks about starting with the first toehold—taking seemingly insurmountable problems one step at a time. That awareness reminds the women about the benefits of being present in the moment.

Some Mind Over Mountain retreats include a blindfolded rock climb. Kate Linton, who feared her first climb using all her senses, decided to try the exercise anyway. “There was something about the experience of not seeing these tiny places to hold that enhanced the trust I have in myself and my body,” she says. “I learned that if you don’t take risks, you’ll never know what can hold you.”

While the physical exercises can be somewhat strenuous and mentally challenging, Kim believes that women benefit just as much from the spa treatments her retreats include—a chance to unwind and absorb the day’s lessons.

Make no mistake. When it comes to retreats, setting matters, even if you’re not planning to do any outdoor sports. Whereas Mind Over Mountains and Ski to Live take advantage of sheer rock faces, jagged peaks, and the serene beauty that comes with their Rocky Mountain backdrops, Genevieve Summers relies on an entirely different landscape for her retreats—the foothills of the Smoky Mountains in northeast Georgia.

Through her company, Dancing With Trees, Genevieve leads tree-climbing expeditions, day trips, and multiday adventures. With the help of double ropes and harnesses, she puts people in the position to move themselves upward into the highest branches of trees that can grow more than 100 feet high. Along the way, while swinging, swaying, and climbing, Genevieve helps people connect with their surroundings, a unique exploration of the natural world. During multiday retreats, groups sleep in four-cornered hammocks that hang in the upper canopy.

As one of the few certified tree-climbing instructors in the country, Genevieve has spent a lifetime climbing trees to connect with something bigger than herself, an experience she enjoys sharing with anyone willing to try. “Tree climbing is my venue,” she says. “It’s the vehicle that has brought me deeper into myself and the natural world.” The nature of the activity has inspired a new trip in 2008, a women-only spiritual adventure.

“I like to give people the opportunity to slow down and be with the trees and themselves,” she says. “Without any specific intentions, I simply provide the opportunity to experience being alive with the forest.”
So before you start looking for a cruise line or resort town as the setting for your next vacation, take a minute to think about your deeper needs. Consider that at the end of any spiritual retreat—whether in the treetops or on a mountainside—you’ll feel alive. But exactly what that means is something only you can discover for yourself.