Your Yoga Adventure Awaits: Sankalpa Travel
Seek out Sankalpa Travel’s founder Conny Erschen at this year’s show to learn about her yoga journey and the unique retreats Sankalpa runs in the magnificent Austrian Alps
Meet Conny Erschen, yoga teacher and founder of Sankalpa Travel. A former corporate executive, she changed career after a rock climbing accident and a devastating personal loss. Here, she talks to OM about her journey and what she hopes to share at this year’s show.
Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
One of the first things I tell people (something most yoga teachers don’t usually lead with!) is that I'm not especially flexible. Twelve years of ballet as a child gave me a decent eye for alignment, and 500-plus hours of training later I understand my body fairly well, but touching my toes still requires real effort.
For a long time, I thought this was a problem — and that belief, and my ego, kept me from teaching. When I finally had the courage to step in front of a class, I realised it might be the most useful thing about me because needing to work through a pose teaches you far more than breezing through it ever could.
I also spent 16 years in corporate life at two global companies. During those years, I learned what a life of intention and consistency actually looks like in practice, what it costs, what it demands, and eventually that understanding became the foundation for everything that followed.
When did yoga first come into your life?
Through rock climbing, in my thirties, which isn't the usual answer, I guess. Back then, I used my body more as a tool, focused on what it could manage. I came to the mat with that same orientation. I wanted to become more flexible so I could climb better.
A serious climbing accident changed that. The trauma around it pulled me away from the rock and towards the mat. What I found wasn't what I expected — nothing physical, something much wider, deeper; breath, stillness, the beginning of a different relationship with difficulty — and that’s when it finally clicked and I went all in. I started my first teacher training in Vinyasa, followed by Yin, and later trained in India in Hatha and Ashtanga. That time was formative, not because it was easy, but because it showed me what a serious practice actually demands on and off the mat and how far it reaches beyond the body.
Then a profound personal loss and a miscarriage — just weeks apart — put my own practice to the test and made certain questions and dreams impossible to postpone any longer. That is ultimately what led me to leave the corporate world and take a leap.
"Consistency matters more than length. One minute on the mat, breathing, still counts."
How did Sankalpa Travel come about?
The name came first - or rather, the name confirmed what we were trying to build. I'd been carrying the idea for a while: a retreat
company that combined genuine expertise, a breathtaking landscape, and real care for the people who showed up. Something intentional, not generic. The word Sankalpa kept surfacing. In Sanskrit, sankalpa means a heartfelt intention or solemn vow — a resolution taken from the deepest part of oneself.
What settled it was a conversation with a work colleague from India. I told him about my longstanding dream and said that if I didn't do it now, I probably never would. He listened and then said, almost matter of-factly: "That's literally the meaning of sankalpa." So I took that as a sign.
There's also something I quietly love about the name: it contains the word "Alp." For a company built around the Alpine mountains, that felt right in a way that was hard to argue with. And the word Travel is in there deliberately. In Austria, retreats of this kind need to be organised through a state licensed travel agency, and we are proud to be one of very few compliant retreat hosts. It matters to us that guests are cared for beautifully, safely, and responsibly.
"Needing to work through a pose teaches you far more than breezing through it ever could."
What would you like readers to know about Sankalpa Travel?
While we often combine yoga with outdoor activities like hiking, we take the practice seriously. Asana is one doorway into the practice. There are others — breathwork, meditation, philosophy — and we walk through all of them. That said, we hold all of this with a degree of humility. The practice deserves respect, not solemnity, and a class where nobody ever laughs is probably missing something.
There's something I carry from climbing that I return to often. Some days, you walk to the base of a route, look up, and you know, not from fear but from reading the conditions or listening to your body honestly, that today is not the day. You turn back. That's not failure. That's closer to wisdom. It works the same way in practice. There are days that call for a full session, and days when one minute on the mat breathing is the whole thing. It still counts. Consistency matters more than length, and part of what we try to give students is permission to recognise what kind of day they’re having.
Also, I got into this because I genuinely believe in people’s capacity to grow — in corporate life and on the mat; in the mountains and in everyday life; at any stage, with any starting point. That belief in people hasn’t shifted, and it’s what I try to bring to every class, every retreat, and every person who walks through the door.
What are your hopes for the OM Yoga Show?
Real conversation, more than anything. The show brings together thousands of people who care about practice — students, teachers, people somewhere between the two — and that is exactly the kind of environment where meaningful connections happen. We’ll be hosting open classes across all three days, which feels like the right way to show up: not just as a stand with brochures, but actually on the mat together. I’d love people to come and meet us, ask questions, try a class, and get a feel for who we are. And if someone walks away with a spark of curiosity about what their practice could feel like in the mountains, or finds something in a class they want to carry home with them, that’s more than enough for me.
Meet Conny Erschen at Stand S2 at the OM Yoga Show, where Sankalpa Travel GmbH is a proud sponsor.
Visit: sankalpa-retreats.com
AUTUMN & WINTER HIGHLIGHTS
ROOTED: A Late Summer Practice Intensive | September 2026
5 days of yoga, breathwork, and meditation — a meaningful immersion with a focus on being present and checking-in on your intentions.
AUTUMN SLOWDOWN: Yoga & Wellness | October 2026
A 4-star wellness hotel above the Ötztal Valley. Yoga sessions and workshops, five-course dinners, and the rest of the time genuinely yours to enjoy the spa. Also perfect for couples.
ALPINE WINTER: Snowshoe Trails & Mountain Yoga | December 2026
Where the cold wakes you up and the silence settles you down. Snowshoe trails, mountain yoga, and a family-run lodge deep in the Wipp Valley with no crowds and real Tyrolean warmth.
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