To our clients, our team, and everyone who has been part of the Cloud 9 journey,
On October 24, 2026, at 10:55 in the morning, I stood at Everest Base Camp, 5,364 meters (17,598 feet) above the sea, and raised the Cloud 9 Penguin flag. This month, we are opening two new spas: San Ramon, California, and Summerlin in Las Vegas.
Those two moments are more connected than they might seem. I want to tell you about the climb, what it taught me, and why it made me more certain than ever about where Cloud 9 is going next.
Eight Days on Foot
It took eight days on foot to reach Base Camp. There are no shortcuts on that trail. Every meter of altitude is earned with your own legs and your own lungs, and the mountain does not care how busy you are back home or how badly you want to arrive.
The air at that height holds about half the oxygen of home. Simple things become hard. Walking up a gentle slope feels like running a sprint. Sleep comes in pieces. Some nights fell to −20 °C (−4 °F), cold enough that you think carefully before taking a glove off.
Not everyone made it. One of our teammates had to leave the trail early. That is part of the mountain, too, and it was a reminder that reaching the top is never guaranteed, no matter how well you prepare.
“Slowly, Slowly”
All the way up, our guide, Buddhi, kept repeating the same two words: “Slowly, slowly.”
At first, it sounded like simple encouragement. By the third or fourth day, I understood it was the whole strategy. On a trek like this, the people who rush are often the ones who get into trouble. The body needs time to adjust to each new height before it can safely go higher. Speed is not the goal. Steadiness is.
Somewhere on that trail, I realized Buddhi was describing more than a way to climb a mountain.
Slowly, steadily: that is how Cloud 9 has grown, too.
Sixteen Years, One Step at a Time
I grew up in a village in Inner Mongolia, where winters dropped to −35 °C (−31 °F) and nothing came easy. You learn early in a place like that to keep moving forward, even when progress is slow.
Sixteen years ago, we opened the first Cloud 9 in Foster City. Since then, we have walked the same way I walked to Base Camp: one step at a time, slowly and surely. We didn’t get lost. We didn’t lose focus.
There were faster ways to grow. There always are. But a spa is not a product on a shelf. It is a room, a therapist, a front desk, and a promise that the person walking through the door will be cared for. That promise does not scale by itself. It has to be built, location by location, person by person.
Today we have 12 locations across 4 states. Every one of them was opened the same way: carefully, and only when we were ready.
Reasonable Hospitality
Over the last three years, with your support, Cloud 9 has truly transformed itself.
Our leadership and team have been reading books together. One of them changed the way we think about our work: Will Guidara’s Unreasonable Hospitality. Inspired by it, we distilled our own version, which we call Reasonable Hospitality: what it truly means to care for every client who walks through our doors.
For us, hospitality is not a script or a slogan. It is the difference between a client who leaves relaxed and a client who leaves feeling genuinely cared for. It is noticing the small things. It is a team that holds itself to a standard even on the busiest day of the week. And it is something we keep learning, because we are not finished improving. Not even close.
What the Mountain Taught Me About Running Cloud 9
I did not go to Everest looking for business lessons. But eight days of thin air leaves a lot of time to think, and I came home with three that I keep returning to.
1. Acclimatize before you climb higher
Halfway up the mountain, I wrote in my diary: “We’re at a turning point, reaching for the next altitude, and the whole team needs to acclimatize to this new height.”
On the trail, you cannot skip acclimatization, no matter how strong you feel. The same is true for a company. Every time Cloud 9 grows, our systems, our training and our people have to adjust to the new height before we take the next step. Growth that outruns a team’s ability to adapt is not really growth. It is risk.
2. Watch the vital signs, and read them correctly
At one point on the climb, my blood-oxygen reading came back at 57%. For a moment, that number was alarming. It turned out the problem was not my lungs. It was my ice-cold fingers confusing the sensor.
It was a good lesson in paying close attention, and in understanding what the numbers are really telling you. At Cloud 9, we read a daily digest from every location. It is how we check our own vital signs: what is going well, what needs attention, and where a client’s experience fell short of our standard. That daily habit keeps us nimble and true to our standard of service excellence.
3. Getting to the top is optional. Getting home is mandatory.
Every climber hears some version of this, and on the mountain it stops being a saying and becomes a rule. Before I left, I made a pinky promise to my six-year-old son that I would come home safe. That promise was with me on every step.
In business, it means never chasing a milestone at the expense of the people who make it possible. Our team, and the trust of our clients, are what bring us home. No new location is worth losing either one.
Two New Doors, Now Open
Standing at Base Camp with the flag in my hands, I knew exactly what came next. Today I am proud to share that Cloud 9 is opening two new spas, bringing the same care we have built over sixteen years to two new neighborhoods.
Cloud 9 San Ramon
2410 San Ramon Valley Blvd, Unit 111
San Ramon, CA 94583
(925) 364-9995
Visit Cloud 9 San Ramon →
Cloud 9 Summerlin
4245 S Grand Canyon Dr, Suite 122
Las Vegas, NV 89147
(725) 330-5999
Visit Cloud 9 Summerlin →
What to expect
If you have visited Cloud 9 before, you will feel at home in San Ramon and Summerlin. If you are new to us, here is what makes Cloud 9 different:
- Family-friendly by design. Our spaces are built with families in mind, including a communal room that is perfect for getting together.
- No memberships. We don’t lock you in. Cloud 9 is open to everyone, whenever you need it.
- Consistent quality. More than 4,000 client testimonials show how consistently our teams take care of people.
- Award-winning care. Cloud 9 was named the #1 Coastside Spa by the Half Moon Bay Review.
Soft-opening celebration
To celebrate, both new spas are offering 50% off every service of 60 minutes or longer and 20% off any new package through November 24, 2026. It is the best time to try Cloud 9 for the first time, or to bring along a friend who never has.
Thank You
To our team members, our front desk staff and our therapists: you are the true heroes of this story. I may have carried the flag to Base Camp, but you are the ones who carry Cloud 9 every single day. Day after day, you give your best, steadily and without fanfare, and you are the ones who lifted Cloud 9 to this new altitude. Thank you.
To our clients: every visit, every package, and every friend you have sent our way brought us to this new height. For sixteen years, you have made Cloud 9 feel like home for our team. We can’t wait to welcome you and your friends to our two newest ones.
Slowly, slowly, we keep climbing.
With gratitude,
Sean Peng
Founder & CEO, Cloud 9
Read the Whole Climb, Day by Day
This letter only scratches the surface. In my Everest diary, I wrote about the full journey: the blood-oxygen scare that turned out to be ice-cold fingers, a sunrise lighting nine Himalayan peaks one by one, a guide singing a Nepali folk song to me on the glacier, and the pinky promise that brought me home.
Follow Cloud 9 on Instagram at @cloud9footspahq for more from the Everest adventure and change of getting a friend’s pass.
About Cloud 9
Founded in Foster City, California, Cloud 9 is America’s family-friendly spa, with 12 locations across 4 states.
Soft-opening offers are valid at Cloud 9 San Ramon and Cloud 9 Summerlin only, through November 24, 2026. The 50% discount applies to services of 60 minutes or longer. Packages purchased at the 20% discount may be used only at these two locations. Offers cannot be combined with any other promotion.
