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Nikki LaRochelle

@niklarochelle

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“You are not a human being in search of a spiritual experience. You are a spiritual being immersed in a human experience.” Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

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♻️ Did you know over 30% of downtown Breckenridge’s waste by weight is coffee cups? ☕️

As of this Memorial Day Weekend, 6 Breckenridge cafés are launching The Colorado Cup, a borrow-and-return drinkware program from @retrocycle.us in collaboration with @townofbreckenridge - Sustainable Breck.

💡How it works:
1. Order your drink in a Colorado Cup
2. Pay a $2.50 deposit, enjoy your drink, then
3. Return your cup to any participating café to get that deposit back as a discount on a future purchase. Each cup is washed on-site and back in circulation, helping reduce single-use waste across town.

Participating cafés include @thecrownbreckenridge @lolojuicebreck @coolrivercoffee @mountainviewcoffeebar @semplicecafebreck and Ullr Cafe at the @grandcolorado

Local artist, @niklarochelle collaborated on the design of The Colorado Cup, as well as a special ‘Breck Cup’, featuring the 10-mile range and retro nod to Breckenridge’s 1970’s ski heritage. Breckenridge is the first geographic pilot of the Colorado Cup program, with expansion to other mountain towns underway.

🚨Attention Breck Businesses - Interested in participating as a café?
📧 Please contact Hayden at SustainableBreck to learn more at haydenv@townofbreckenridge.com or the Retrocycle team at hello@retrocycle.org

Sip sustainably and help reduce single-use waste in Breckenridge!

#SustainableBreck #TheColoradoCup #BreckenridgeCO #SummitCountyCO #SupportLocal The Colorado cup, borrow a cup Togo and return at any cafe in the Colorado cup network. Launching in Breckenridge Memorial Day weekend

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🎙️ New Episode Drop!

Ski mountaineering just made its Olympic debut at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Games and we’ve got the full breakdown.

Nikki LaRochelle joins us live from Milan to talk historic moments, including mountain runners Cam Smith and Anna Gibson finishing fourth in the mixed relay, ahead of powerhouse nations, and Oriol Cardona Coll winning Spain’s first Winter Olympic gold since 1972.

We also get into what endurance athletes can learn from Alysa Liu’s joy-filled gold medal moment and whether trail running could ever make it to the Games.

🎧 Hit play and catch the full episode now.

#thebuzzpodcast #ultraSignup #ultrarunner #trailrunner

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Speaking from Milan, Nikki wraps up Skimo in the Olympics. Very interesting: A great result with Cam and Anna; Super exciting to watch; push-back on the very reductionist Olympic format; what will the 2030 Games in France look like?
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/skimos-wild-olympic-debut-with-nikki-larochelle/id1804209940?i=1000751206016

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Now that my work is officially a wrap here in Italy at the Olympics, and I begin to reflect on the past 3 weeks, and I am quickly reminded, how lucky are we, who choose kindness, and to spend our times in the Mountains, amongst giants and Mother Nature, to work around others who also feel the draw of natural beauty and pursue a life of living it to the fullest!!! Start your day with a moment of gratitude, kick any drama to the side, in the words of Bad Bunny, “the only thing more powerful than hate, IS LOVE!!”

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Ski mountaineering wasn’t exactly on John Rauen’s radar when he was growing up in Pennsylvania.

The Pocono Mountains are small, low-elevation hills by global skiing standards. Most resorts offer a few hundred feet of vertical relief and rely heavily on snowmaking. Growing up there, John went on an occasional ski in the evenings and for a long time, “genuinely thought skiing was a nighttime activity.”  After his four years in Portland, Oregon for college, John (@john.rauen) moved to Breckenridge with his sights set on pursuing triathlon. Though, the idea of spending the Colorado winters on an indoor bike trainer was anything but inspiring. One of his friends offered up an extra pair of skimo skis and boots, so he decided to give skimo racing a try.

His first skimo race in 2022? By his own account, it was a disaster of skin failures, booting half the course, and carrying his skis most of the time. The disaster was enough to interest John in trying all the different skimo race formats. He fell in love with the skimo community (shoutout to Rise N’ Shine races @arapahoe_basin @breckrec) and specifically the vertical.  Working with coach Nikki LaRochelle @niklarochelle for the last two years, his focus and training ultimately earned him a spot representing @usaskimo competing in @ismf_skimo World Cups.

John and Nikki have found that keeping overall training volume controlled allows him to maximize quality and speed. He rarely exceeds 10-hour training weeks during the race season, prioritizing intensity and recovery to support high-end performance.

When he’s training at home in Breckenridge (9600ft / 2300m), altitude adds another layer of complexity, particularly when it comes to developing strength. To address this, muscular endurance has become a key component of his training, as well as upper body strength.

This season, John has already placed top 25 in two ISMF World Cup Verticals, most recently an 11th place in Andorra. Looking ahead, the priority for the remainder of his season is vertical racing. He will close out the winter with the legendary Patrouille des Glaciers (@patrouilledesglaciers_official or PDG).

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From CSU to the slopes of Milan, Nikki LaRochelle will be on the mic at the 2026 Winter Olympics! 🐏⛷️🗻

A current @socialworkcsu master’s student and @csu_artandarthistory alumna, Nikki was selected to serve as an analyst for ski mountaineering during its historic debut at the 2026 Winter Games in Italy. Ski mountaineering, or Skimo, is an endurance sport where athletes climb and descend mountain terrain on skis.

Nikki is highly involved in the Skimo community as both a longtime athlete and former member of the U.S. Ski Mountaineering National Team. She has represented the United States at multiple World Championships and continues to coach and compete at a high level.

We can’t wait to hear your analysis, Nikki! Learn more about her story at the link in the @csuhealthhumansci bio 🔗 Ski mountaineering athlete Nikki LaRochelle hikes up a snowy mountain slope on skis and in winter equipment

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Meet Nikki LaRochelle – Mother, Artist, Athlete and a Skimo Commentator for the 2026 Olympic Broadcasting Services! We are thrilled for her 💃
Link in Bio.
#skimo
#womenoutdoors
#artists
#competitiveathlete
#olympics

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Ski season is coming. It won’t wait for you to be ready.

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Over the past 18 months, @aeflis, a physician based in Salt Lake City, UT has tackled The Grand Traverse, Power of Four, and, most recently, the Speedgoat 50k. As a multi-season athlete, she blends skimo and trail running into her life as a working physician and mom.

Under the coaching of @niklarochelle, Ali built the durability and capacity to handle a higher training load and more threshold work, while still keeping it sustainable with her busy schedule.

Nikki’s deep background in both skimo and trail running was key, helping Ali train smart, stay healthy, and become a stronger, more well-rounded athlete.

Nikki’s best tip for other working athletes competing in both seasons? Consistency. For athletes balancing demanding jobs, family life, and high athletic goals, commitment to the training when they can fit it in is essential.

Congratulations to both Ali and Nikki, we’re excited to see what’s ahead!

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“Big things are often just small things that are noticed.”-Markus Zusak

For the third year in a row, I had the gift of spending Fourth of July weekend with these two shiningly bright humans plus the other half of their family, camping under the stars and aspens in one of Colorado’s most magical mountain ranges. Added to the mix this year were several more stellar humans (Photo 2), plus the joy of the summit of a 14-‘er long loved, a summit gained through the view of the lighthearted spirits of two nine-year-olds who pretty much sprinted up and down it, laughing most of the way.
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It’s felt hard to celebrate our country this year, or know just what words to write to do so. On a day meant to recognize our country’s independence and beginnings as a nation based on equality and liberty, we celebrate with parades and fireworks. But in the day-to-day reality, we watch as more and more people’s freedoms are being heartbreakingly taken away.

The poet Nikita Gill writes:

“Everything is on fire,
but everyone I love is doing beautiful things
and trying to make life worth living,
and I don’t have to believe in everything,
but I believe in that.”

Every day when I read the news and the grief feels overwhelming, I work to remember that the small gestures — a child marveling at an alpine caterpillar or flower, or joyfully glissading down a snowfield, is as true as a child being shelled in Gaza, or orphaned in Ukraine. But their vastly disparate realities feel so jarring it’s barely graspable. All I know is that I’ve had the gift of traveling throughout alot of the world with my cameras and meeting children everywhere, and their hopes and laughter and dreams are not that different wherever you go and whatever circumstances they live in. And every single one of them deserves a life filled with the small moments of marvel induced by caterpillars and flowers, as well as the bigger necessities of love and safety.

“The children are always ours, every single one of them, all over the globe.”-James Baldwin

“May we think of freedom, not as the right to do as we please but as the opportunity to do what is right.”- Peter Marshall

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New Evokecast Podcast 🔥

#98 Ski Mountaineering Racing: Training And Competing, With Nikki LaRochelle

Join Evoke coaches Scott Johnston @coach_scott_johnson and Nikki LaRochelle @niklarochelle for a deep-dive in training for, and competing in ski mountaineering races.

0:00:00 Introduction
0:03:08 Best choice of ski skins for the Grand Traverse in Colorado
0:10:37 Managing hydration and fueling during races
0:19:31 Muscular endurance training for long ski-mo races
0:25:21 Longest ski distance during pre-race training
0:32:18 Developing as system for transitions
0:35:14 Ratio of aerobic/anaerobic energy production utilized during ski-mo races
0:45:14 Why do ski-mo racers start fast, even for very long races?
0:48:28 Gear requirements during races
0:52:48 Specific training focuses in the final eight-weeks before a race
1:07:03 How to submit your own questions to Nikki about ski-mo

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Last night’s Breck Peak 8 race was a blast. Ullr took a break and gave us a balmy evening between the cold weeks. @summitskimo & @team.summit.colorado’s youth teams had a great showing! Stoked to see all the youth out here.

Long Course
Men’s 🥇@jasonqmcgowan 🥈 @carrcac 🥉 @prophet_ash_
Women’s 🥇 @niklarochelle

Medium
🥇 @finnfun_ 🥈 Trent Bradshaw 🥉 Elliot drumwright
🥇 @ashleyyadkins 🥈 @akrynes 🥉 Tessa Jacobs

Short
🥇 Kai Smith 🥈 @incasteppa 🥉 Rowan Rockne
🥇 Chloe Christensen 🥈 @alice_lives_ 🥉elli Flickinger & Evelyn’s Manning

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