Elizabeth (Libby) Harrington, Founder & Chief Explorer of VITAL Ventures, joins Christine as the Soulful Trailblazer honoree for this week’s soulful conversation, produced in collaboration with Strictly Jane Austen Tours.
We continue our special Soul of Travel series celebrating three extraordinary women who are being recognized as Soulful Trailblazers—women who are creating positive change through travel while opening doors and creating opportunities for others. We are excited to share that we are partnering with friend and colleague Becki Rupp, Founder of Trailblazer Wellness, to honor these trailblazers.
Words of Wisdom
That whole experience of taking on a big challenge, saying yes really before I really knew what I was getting myself into, embracing it, preparing for it, committing to it, training for it, doing the work day to day, showing up for myself and doing it, just kind of opened up really the next, phase of life for me.
- Elizabeth (Libby) Harrington of VITAL Ventures
Elizabeth (Libby) Harrington is a Pound Ridge entrepreneur who at 58 started an adventure fitness community and company. After 30+ years in digital media, Libby founded VITAL Ventures for people who refuse to accept conventional wisdom about aging.
VITAL combines expert fitness training with wilderness adventures - Costa Rica surf trips, Alaska hiking, a Dolomites trek - proving that our best adventures aren't behind us. "I created what I needed and couldn't find: community, adventure, and permission to prioritize health & fitness at this stage of life," Libby explains.
Her clients, ranging in ages from 30-80, move from "I could never" to "I actually did" through 3-4 months of training followed by 3-4 days of epic adventure. You don't need to travel far to start: VITAL offers guided local hikes in New York, online Strength & Conditioning training for building confidence on the trail and in life, as well as epic global adventures.
A History of Wanderlust, Health, and Outdoors
Elizabeth grew up the youngest of five sisters in a Seventh-day Adventist family in one of the United States' Blue Zone communities, with a strong focus on health, nutrition, family, and service. Her parents had a deep sense of wanderlust. When she was seven, her mother took the five girls to Europe, bought a Volkswagen Westfalia camper, and camped with them for two months.
Fitness stayed with Elizabeth through college, graduate school, and her career, as she taught aerobics and spinning before and after work and later owned a fitness studio. Professionally, she began in global sports entertainment production at IMG and went on to spend decades building brands and helping startups launch before becoming an executive at a major media company. Today she is an ACE-certified personal trainer and a New York State-certified hiking guide.
Elizabeth spent 30 years following the money and advancing her career, until she found herself in a highly data-driven executive role far removed from the clients and the work she loved. Over about a decade, she felt her sense of self chipping away as she grew older and less relevant in her role. In 2021, with layoffs coming at her company, she sensed that as a 55-year-old, well-paid female executive, she was likely to be reorganized out. "So just feeling kind of small and feeling kind of crummy about myself," she recalls. The layoff did come, along with a few hundred others.
The question had been with her for years. When she turned 50, she kept asking herself what she was meant to do and assumed the answer would be a tech startup. None of those ideas excited her. After the layoff, she finally asked herself, "what is staring me right in the eye that I keep looking away from? … It's time for me to be a CEO of what I believe in." The answer became coaching, community, movement, and adventure.
Christine reflects on how many women reach the pinnacle of a career, only to discover it was a stopping point on the way to the work they most needed to do. Elizabeth's story is yet another example of veering on course.
Doing Hard Things: From the Grand Canyon to VITAL Ventures
The turning point came when she was already feeling that a much-needed change was coming. In 2021, one of Elizabeth's sisters asked her to hike the Grand Canyon rim to rim to rim for her 60th birthday. Elizabeth said yes and dove into research, discovering that it would be 48 miles, close to 12,000 feet of elevation change, and a level of distance she had never attempted before. She researched, built a training plan, and learned about strength, hydration, and nutrition for endurance hiking. Eight family members joined, including three sisters ages 55, 60, and 65. Because the hike took place during a heat advisory, along the way, the group cared for a group member experiencing hyponatremia and helped another hiker in distress out of the canyon. And then? They stayed overnight in their lodging and spent the next day hiking back to their starting point. "It was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life," Elizabeth says, but she emerged with a new sense of herself. "I came out changed," she shares. "My God, I can freaking still do really hard things."
That confidence carried her to her first marathon four months later – the New York City Marathon – with an American Cancer Society team and a simple goal to start and finish healthy. After the Grand Canyon and the marathon, Elizabeth heard the same comment again and again from people of all ages: “How did you do that? I, I could never do that.” She recognized the feeling because she had shared it only months before. Christine notes how powerful it is that Elizabeth went into the canyon feeling small and irrelevant and came out with a belief in herself that matched the challenges she had overcome. For Christine, the experience became a spark that reignited Elizabeth’s sense of her own worth and ability. The next question was how to recreate that experience for other women in the same place, so they could reclaim it for themselves. This connects to the women’s wisdom at the heart of Soul of Travel. Too often, women are made to feel they have little left to offer at the very point in life when they have the most to give. Creating space for them to do hard things helps them see that value again, and keeps their wisdom from being lost.
Developing VITAL Ventures
VITAL Ventures grew from a gap Elizabeth saw in the outdoor world. She wanted to “create an on-ramp to endurance adventure for people like us,” including people “who think they can but don’t know where to start,” or who need confidence and guidance to get there. Marathon runners have teams, clubs, and charities, and CrossFit has its own devoted community. Hikers, on the other hand, often jump from casual walks straight to ultra-endurance trail runs, with little in between. Elizabeth asked how someone could go “from a, just a healthy person to a hiker that’s doing 10-mile hikes, 12-mile hikes” without years of experience behind them. Her answer was a framework built from her own Grand Canyon and marathon training, covering strength, endurance hiking, nutrition, hydration, safety, and managing risk. She describes it as “crafting a very responsible roadmap for endurance hiking.” Elizabeth launched VITAL Ventures at 58, and she sees it as a full expression of who she is and the life she wants to live, centered on “building a community of people who want to explore what is that living vital all about.”
VITAL Ventures teams of eight to twelve people launch about four months before each trip with personal growth modules, fitness and training module, and goal-setting module. They meet on a kickoff call where each person shares why they are going and what they fear, then follow a day-by-day training plan with strength training, cardio, and progressively longer weekend hikes. Regular check-ins, workshops with a registered nutritionist and trail experts, a gear guide, and a personal growth module all prepare them. On Alaska trips, a bear safety expert joins too. Elizabeth sees this as "an investment in your health, and it's an investment in your next 15 years."
The community is central to the experience. "That early, connection does change everything," she explains. Her team manifesto asks each member to take ownership of their training and gear and to step in if someone on the trail needs help. The goal is to learn, "how do we behave as the best humans we can possibly be in the worst situations?" And the model works; two and a half years, more than 50 people have completed seven VITAL Ventures adventures.
Reverence for a Changing Planet
The Grand Canyon holds a special place for Elizabeth, and she has crossed it many times. "And every single time that I show up to the Grand Canyon, I cry," she says. "This place is so much bigger than me." She has also seen how quickly the canyon is changing. The Dragon Bravo Fire swept through the North Rim and North Kaibab Trail ahead of one of her planned trips, and she gave her group the choice to hike a different route or join another adventure. A recent flash flood that took three lives in an area she knows well has stayed with her.
Christine raises the idea of last chance tourism, the pull to visit places before they change or disappear. Together, they consider a different response to the climate crisis: acknowledging the changes the Earth is going through and choosing to witness, celebrate, and be in awe of them with care. For Elizabeth, the sensitivity of how we treat the planet feels real and personal.
She educates her teams about the canyon's history and the Indigenous peoples who came before and remain there today. She reminds them that "we are such little guests, and we are such specks on this planet," and asks travelers to take national parks seriously. "Honor them, protect them," she urges. The canyon has taught her something lasting about her own place in the world. "I'm impermanent. I'm just a visitor here," she reflects. Her work invites others to feel that same awe and to keep doing hard things with respect for the places that make it possible.
Soul of Travel Episode 266 At a Glance
In this conversation, Christine and Elizabeth (Libby) discuss:
· Career peaks and the experience of being pushed out because of age, gender, and success, and treating that peak as an opportunity to work more closely aligned with your values
· How extreme hiking and adventure can build new self-belief
· The energy around last chance tourism, and making travel choices in response to the climate crisis
· Moving with respect and reverence while witnessing, celebrating, and standing in awe of a changing planet
Join Christine and Elizabeth (Libby) Harrington now for this soulful conversation.
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Related UN Sustainable Development Goals
Sustainable Development Goal #3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.
Resources
Learn more about VITAL Ventures here.
Join the vital movement and subscribe to the newsletter at https://www.vitalventures.live/join-vital.
Check out the VITAL Ventures upcoming 2027 season to see what adventure is calling you at https://www.vitalventures.live/vital-adventure.
Connect with Libby: Instagram / Facebook / LinkedIn
Special thanks to Strictly Jane Austen Tours for your partnership in the production of Season 7 of Soul of Travel Podcast!
About the Soul Of Travel Podcast
Soul of Travel honors the passion and dedication of people making a positive impact in the tourism industry. In each episode, you’ll hear the stories of women who are industry professionals, seasoned travelers, and community leaders. Our expert guests represent social impact organizations, adventure-based community organizations, travel photography and videography, and entrepreneurs who know that travel is an opportunity for personal awareness and a vehicle for global change.
Join us to become a more educated and intentional traveler as you learn about new destinations, sustainable and regenerative travel, and community-based tourism. Industry professionals and those curious about a career in travel will also find value and purpose in our conversations.
We are thought leaders, action-takers, and heart-centered change-makers who inspire and create community. Join host Christine Winebrenner Irick for these soulful conversations with our global community of travelers exploring the heart, the mind, and the globe.
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Credits. Christine Winebrenner Irick (Host, creator, editor). Elizabeth “Libby” Harrington (Guest). Original music by Clark Adams. Editing, production, and content writing by Carly Oduardo.
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