The hungover woman could barely look up. A classic cocktail of destruction—altitude, alcohol, and vacation brain—had led her to call Vail iV Wellness and Recovery (vailivtherapy.com), a mobile IV therapy business in Eagle County. Kristin Pilecki, a registered ER nurse and cofounder of the business along with her husband, Andrew (a local firefighter), hooked up the woman to a mixture of water-soluble vitamins and minerals selected for her condition. Then everyone waited. 

Maybe you’ve heard of IV therapy—basically bringing the hospital practice into everyday life, aiding all kinds of recovery. It’s long been popular in professional sports and party destinations like Las Vegas and Los Angeles, but until recently it hadn’t caught on in mountain towns. The Pileckis knew from their day jobs that the need was there: Visitors to the valley suffering from altitude sickness, get a little too fancy free at a wedding, or find themselves overly fatigued from repeated exertions on the trail or ski hill. The couple took a chance and opened their mobile shop in December 2020. 

Each visit starts with a registered nurse (the company only hires clinically practicing RNs) visiting the client at their lodging or home. The nurse takes vital signs and then works with the patient to decide which one of their six IV bags best suits his or her needs (a kidney/liver detox treatment or anti-nausea medicine can also be added). “We help them find the right cocktail for them,” Kristin says. The IV is infused for 45 minutes to an hour, more vital signs are taken, then the nurse leaves. 

The Pileckis take appointments from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day of the year, and treatments range from $187 to $294 for a 1-liter bag. Pilecki says she’s had patients say she saved their vacation. As for the hungover woman on her girls’ trip, halfway through her treatment, she perked up like a dandelion at sunrise. “OK guys,” she said to her friends, “What are we going to do now?”

“All of her friends kind of looked at me,” Pilecki says, “like, oh no, we should’ve never given her an IV.” 

Should you kick or embrace canned O2?

You see them at the bar, on the mountain, and even at NBA games: small cans of oxygen that deliver a shot of pure O2 when you hit a button. But do they work? The answer is kind of. “They’re like a burst of energy, but it’s not long-lasting or sustaining,” says one local health professional. “The average person breathes 12 to 20 times a minute, and in order to reap the benefits of oxygen, they need to be on it continuously. The cans deliver a little jolt, but for people who are struggling at altitude, or their oxygen is low, it doesn’t help them.”

Recovery Lab Vail 

Opened last year in the Ritz-Carlton Club in Lionshead, Recovery Lab is like Disneyland for tired adults. Former Vail bartender Harrison Brown and his wife, Kordi (a massage therapist), brought the concept to life to fill a void: the lack of publicly available, cutting-edge recovery modalities. No matter if you just summited Holy Cross, over-imbibed the night before, or simply feel sluggish from altitude, there is a wellness fix for your aching muscles or mind. The lab includes an oxygen bar, hyperbaric chamber, IV therapy, compression boots, cryotherapy (and a cryotherapy facial), as well as a post-MTB recovery treatment that pushes the lactic acid out of your legs. It helps to book in advance, but the lab accepts walk-ins if there is room.