This spring, a new wellness retreat will welcome its first cohort to the high desert borderlands of southern Arizona. Called “I Am the Mountn,” the four-night, five-day gathering promises “profound personal growth and transformation,” including 14 hours of one-on-one sessions with what organizers call “soul workers.” Guests are invited to “come as you are, leave unshakeable.”

The retreat is the latest project from Heidi Rentz and her husband Zander Ault, longtime fixtures in the outdoor endurance world. The couple are best known for producing boutique athletic events and trips, including two in their hometown of Patagonia, Arizona — the Spirit World 100 gravel race and The Daydreamer trail running race. Since 2015, they’ve also owned and operated The Cyclist’s Menu, guiding small groups on cycling and food-focused trips around the world.

Zander Ault and Heidi Rentz. Photos by Shannon Christine Photo.

While “I Am the Mountn” marks a departure from the human-powered athletic events that the couple is known for, their ‘why’ for creating the retreat remains the same.

“I think what we’ve learned over the years is that we genuinely love bringing like-minded people together,” says Rentz. “The goal is always to leave a fire in their soul that lasts for months to come.” The couple’s model has always emphasized intimacy, hands-on hosting and the sense that the organizers are as present as the guests — a welcome departure from large, faceless event operations. That approach, Rentz said, is part of what they’re carrying into the wellness space.

But “I Am the Mountn” marks a pivot from finish lines and aid stations into the headier world of spiritual and emotional growth. The retreat’s curriculum centers on a blend of astrology and intuitive therapy — modalities Rentz says she encountered while pursuing astrology studies in her late 30s.

“The more I learned from intuitives and astrologers, the more I realized that the combination is the most powerfully efficient form of therapy, self-realization and awareness,” she says. The idea for the retreat, she added, came to her on a run, when she began imagining what kind of spiritual gathering she would actually want to attend.

That vision has become an accelerated, all-inclusive format designed to compress what Rentz describes as “months of inner soul work” into a single long weekend. The structure includes individual sessions with multiple practitioners, group time, shared meals and lodging on-site. The promise is clarity: arrive with questions, leave with a “plan of attack” for what comes next.

Rentz is candid that this is her first foray into what she calls the “healing space.” She frames the retreat less as treatment and more as an immersive container for reflection and decision-making. “This retreat is very similar to the cycling trips we host around the world,” she says. “The same vibes, the same hosts — just a different style of growth and development.”

Part of the retreat’s appeal, she believes, lies in its intensity. Many people feel they can only go so far in a single one-hour session with a healer or astrologer. The retreat model offers time, continuity and the psychological permission to focus inward without the distractions of daily life. The setting — the quiet, rural and expansive borderlands region — is meant to reinforce that sense of pause.

Whether such experiences translate into durable change once guests return home is an open question, one that Rentz has high hopes for. “I want people to leave with a fire under their ass,” she says. “Arriving with questions and leaving with them answered, and a plan to take their next path with confidence.”

For Patagonia, a town that has become a niche destination for endurance athletes and outdoor recreationists, the retreat represents a different kind of tourism — one oriented less around physical challenge and more around emotional and spiritual exploration.

“I Am the Mountn” will run April 14-18, 2026, with lodging and meals included. The founders say they plan to keep groups small and hands-on, mirroring the boutique scale of their athletic events. For participants, the value is less about measurable outcomes than about the experience of stepping away, being witnessed and returning home with a sharpened sense of direction.

In a cultural moment saturated with promises of optimization and transformation, the retreat’s most concrete offering may be time — time to sit with questions, time to talk to someone trained to listen and time to imagine a different next step. Whether that proves “unshakeable” will depend on what participants do with what they take home from their time in the borderlands.

Learn more at iamthemountn.com.

Betsy Welch
Journalist
@thebootsappeal