S2:Ep3. Nikki Champion, Utah Avalanche Center

Imagine boots on snow for 12 months a year? From the towering peaks of Denali and Rainier, to the powder-filled backcountry of Utah's Wasatch Range, that's the life of Nikki Champion. It's a long way from the young girl who was chasing gates as a ski racer in Michigan. Today, she's a vital link in helping keep Utah's backcountry safe as a forecaster with the Utah Avalanche Center.

As her name implies, Nikki truly championed her own path - moving from Michigan to Colorado to attend college and quickly discovering her passion for snow. She learned about snow science, taking her zest of knowledge to Montana. Seeking mentors for her burgeoning career, she headed for Alaska. Today she summers in Alaska and Washington state as a mountain climbing guide but spends winters here in Utah where she's up and at work by 3:00-4:00 a.m. on every forecast shift.

RESOURCES

Utah Avalanche Center
utahavalanchecenter.org

Know Before You Go Online Education
kbyg.org

Utah Avalanche Awareness Week - Dec. 6-12
Watch for daily on-snow and online classes.
utahavalanchecenter.org/education/uac-kbyg-classes

CHATTING WITH NIKKI CHAMPION

Nikki, you returned to Utah in October and quickly found people heading to the backcountry. Is it looking like a busy season?
It sure seems like it. I've been out three days so far this year, and almost every single day the outer parking lot looks like the lifts are running. And we had a record showing at USAW (Utah Snow and Avalanche Workshop) - close to a thousand people for each open night which is awesome.

Before we get to skiing, how did you find your way into mountain guiding?
I'm going on my sixth season with RMI. I used to work up in Alaska as a guide up there doing some ice climbing, glacier travel, things like that. And seven years ago I came down to the lower 48 and I climbed Mount Rainier for the first time. And while I was there, I saw all the guides climbing and I was like, 'that looks pretty fun, I think I could do that.' So the next season, I applied and I got the gig. I've entered the rotation in which I spend every May through October climbing primarily in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. So our normal rotation looks like a May on Rainier, a June on Denali, July and August back on Rainier and in the North Cascades and then off in September doing a lot of North Cascades work until I wrap up and head back to Utah.

In Nikki Champion's year, how many months are you touching snow?
Oh, gosh, probably 12 months a year. Sometimes I try to take October off and warm up. Previously I would try to kind of take some time off and go somewhere tropical and only wear sandals for a month or so, give my feet a break from the ski boots and the mountaineering boots. But somehow snow still seems to sneak into every month of my life.

Was the summer climbing impacted by COVID?
Yeah, the guiding industry seemed to be hit pretty hard by COVID this year. The whole climbing season got canceled on Denali for guide services as well as public climbers. So we were unable to do a season up there and I was actually unable to climb on Rainier until September this year. So a much different summer for me.

As a young girl, how did your life on snow begin?
I was pretty fortunate. I was actually born in Colorado, in between Denver and Steamboat. My parents got me on the skis when I was about like one and a half or two. They had me skiing with like a hula hoop out front of them so I could hold onto it. So I started skiing really young, which I thank my parents for. We moved to Michigan when I was about four, so pretty young. I began alpine racing really young as well, which took me all over the state of Michigan and out west as well to train. So it kind of came as no surprise to anyone that when I started looking at colleges when I was 18, I was looking for something out west, ideally Colorado or Montana - somewhere that had the mountains.

You learned snow science during college in Colorado and Montana, what led you to Alaska?
I kind of finally stumbled into finding out how that snow science was what I wanted to pursue. I started teaching avalanche classes in Montana. I began doing my own research outside of just helping field assistants. And I started working in the Sub-Zero Science and Engineering Lab in Bozeman, which is like a cold lab where you get to create snow. After I actually graduated, I wanted to start exploring more options for fore...