Vail Valley mobile sauna business brings healing to you
In addition to a mobile sauna, new service hosts yoga, cold therapy, meditation and other wellness activities
Nomadic Roots Sauna & Wellness/Courtesy photo
Taking a plunge into Turkey Creek near the trails outside of Red Cliff was an average way for Kevin and Aspen Ives to spend their day after a hike. The couple loves to take part in all sorts of outdoor activities like snowboarding, snowmobiling, cross-country skiing in the winter and hiking and biking in the summer and a cold plunge into the chilly waters of the nearby creek was a way for them to recover and rejuvenate so they could get back out and do it all again the next day. The only thing that was missing was heat therapy, and that is where the idea to create a mobile sauna and wellness business came about.
“We’d come home from our outdoor activities and think, ‘wouldn’t it be great if we had a sauna right now?’ And we also thought if we feel this way, others may also want a sauna for heat therapy, so we did some research and next thing you know we’re getting a sauna kit shipped to us from Nootka Saunas in British Columbia,” Aspen Ives said.
The two created Nomadic Roots Sauna & Wellness in December. What they offer is a mobile sauna that you can rent for the day, weekend or week at your house or condo if you want to pop into the sauna after skiing, snowboarding, snowshoeing or hiking outdoors. They also offer wellness experiences where you can have a private yoga class, a guided sauna and cold exposure session, followed by breath work and meditation. This can be done at your residence, or you can do this all at the Minturn Fitness Center.
Kevin is a coach and personal trainer at Minturn Fitness Center, has a full-time job at the Vail Symposium and coaches soccer at Vail Mountain School. Aspen teaches and coaches volleyball at Vail Mountain School and they are new parents to their baby girl, Marley Jean.
“People think we are crazy to start up a new business with everything else we have going on, but we are just so passionate about wellness and want to share that with others,” Aspen said.
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Aspen and Kevin are lifelong athletes, with Aspen playing Division II volleyball in college and Kevin playing football and soccer at the Division I level in college. Kevin was also on the U.S. Olympic Bobsled team during the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi.
“Wellness, fitness and just taking care of your body and mind is really important to us,” Aspen said. “People who live here and like to travel here for the recreation opportunities really prioritize their well-being and their health because they want to be able to do all of these sports and strive for longevity. We’ve come up with a tagline 鈥� maximize your on-mountain performance by prioritizing your off-mountain recovery 鈥� which is all about taking care of your body when you’re not on the mountain so you can do as much as you can when you’re on the mountain,” Aspen said.
Kevin acts as the wellness director, leading the yoga, hot and cold therapy experiences, breath work and meditation. Aspen serves as the marketing and events coordinator, and she said they are excited to come up with creative ways to partner with the community. Nomadic Roots Sauna & Wellness has already teamed up with businesses and events in Red Cliff and Minturn.
“We offer hourly rentals in Red Cliff for the Green Bridge Inn and Rocky Mountain Adventure Rentals, so people come home from a snowmobile trip and hop in the sauna for an hour with up to eight people,” Aspen said. “We’ll also be at the Bindu & Friends Memorial Rail Jam at Vail 撸先生 and Snowboard Academy in Minturn on February 15.”
Nomadic Roots Sauna & Wellness will bring the sauna to The Belden Witch in Minturn for cacao and community every second Saturday of the month.
When doing research before opening this type of business, the couple found many studies in Scandinavia about the benefits of saunas.
“There’s a study that stated there’s one sauna for every three people in Finland and the idea behind why saunas are so beneficial is that it’s not only the physical benefits, but also the social connection and ensuring that you have a healthy way to connect with people around you,” Aspen said.
Get your group together and create your own custom wellness package or rent the sauna on your next group outing. For more information, go to . Check out their to learn about specials and contest like the Apr猫s Sauna & Recovery Workshop giveaway they are doing. Enter before Feb. 1 and if you win you can attend the event on either Feb. 8 or March 8.
