AP Features, May 24th, 2007
Attempt a 14,000-foot peak without any technical or physical preparation, you probably won't get very far.
Try mountain bike racing at altitude without building stamina or learning proper pedaling technique, you'll peter out halfway up the mountain.
Take a crack at rock climbing with no prior training, chances are you're going to get hurt.
You could get ready for each of these endeavors on your own, buying books and videos, taking classes, working out on your own. The problem is that it takes time to pull everything together and it's hard to be sure if you're getting the right information or preparing correctly.
There's an easier way to do it.
A handful of resorts around the country have created a niche called experiential travel, meaning everything at the resort, from the food to the spa treatments, is geared toward helping guests reach specific fitness goals.
The scenery might be different, but places like Vail Mountain Lodge & Spa, Hotel Valley Ho in Scottsdale, Ariz., Hotel Del Coronado in California, Rosario Resort & Spa in Eastsound, Wash., and The Equinox in Manchester Village, Vt., all have the same basic approach -- trying to make the experience more enjoyable.
"We do what we do to supplement the kinds of entertainment that's out there," says Frank Johnson, general manager of Vail Mountain Lodge & Spa. "Certainly, the scenery and the environment that's out there is the dominant feature and we just complement that."
Guests at Vail Mountain Lodge & Spa can prepare for a wide range of activities at the Vail Athletic Club, located downstairs from the lobby.
There's plenty of classes to build up basic fitness, along with sport-specific workouts for everything from rock climbing and mountain trail running to gaining core strength for golf and tennis. Other classes are technique-driven, like how to properly paddle a kayak or form a climbing strategy.
Want to take on a single track on a mountain bike? The coaches at Vail Athletic Club also will look at your form, analyze your pedal stroke and properly fit you to a bike to make sure you're getting the most out of every motion.
For an upcoming kayak race, the club held a clinic on Gore Creek, where they went over strategies for tackling different parts of the course.
Ellen Miller, the first woman to summit Mount Everest from both sides, teaches the nuances of mountaineering, even taking guests out at 3 a.m. to practice putting on crampons -- just so they'll have an idea what it's going to be like up on the mountain.
"The basic motto of the Vail Athletic Club is they get better in here so they'll get better out there," says athletic director Shannon Miller. "We've got this great facility inside, but the better facility is really the mountains outside, the environment we have here in Vail. A lot of our training revolves around coming inside and training specifically for what you're going to be doing outside."
A spa treatment might seem like a frivolous extra to some, but it's all part of the experience at Vail Mountain Lodge & Spa and hotels like it.
If you're getting ready to tackle a difficult activity, the spa is there to get you loose, working the muscles with massage and heat to prime everything up. Once you're done and feeling a bit worn out, the spa can help the recovery process with deep muscle massage, hydro and heat therapy or simply cooling tissue with cold stones or ice packs.
"We're here to help people recreate at a high level and also have some revitalization and rejuvenation so that when they return home they feel really relaxed and taken care of," says Lisa Dekoster, spa director at Vail Mountain Lodge & Spa.
"For me, a spa isn't really pampering like a lot of people think it is. For me, it's a very effective way of working with muscles, relaxing the muscles, balancing the muscle tension out and really allowing the body to relax and let go."
Even the food is part of the experience.
Terra Bisto at Vail Mountain Lodge & Spa, like restaurants at some of the other hotels, offers a wide variety of healthy, organic foods that actually taste good. It's a great place to eat when you need to increase calories before a strenuous activity and to get good food that will help you recover afterward.
"The original wave of organic food product that came out was good, but much more specialized and you had to really be an aficionado of that style of eating to like it," Johnson says. "We happen to have delicious food that's beautifully presented and, oh, by the way, this happens to be organic and natural. The emphasis is on taste and balancing ingredients. It's pretty unique."
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John Marshall is asap's sports reporter, based in Denver.
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