Julia
JULIA NILES is a little loony but totally loving. Her laughter is contagious. Even after a surgery to remove a tumor along with half of her left lung in 2007, this Jackson Hole Mountain Guide is still smiling all the way up the mountain. Niles grew up climbing around her grandfather’s cabin in Driggs, Idaho, where she learned the ropes — so to speak. She can onsight up through 5.12a and up to Grade 5 ice. In the Tetons, she has free-soloed the Snaz (IV 5.10a 1,400 feet) in four hours car-to-car, and also soloed Open Book (III 5.9 1,000 feet) and Irene’s Arete (III 5.9 1,200 feet) in a day. She also has done the Grand Traverse in 16 hours to become the first woman to free-solo the 10-peak Teton route in a day — and that was after her lobectomy. Niles is an American Mountain Guides Association rock- and alpine-certified guide. She’s now in the process of getting fully certified (rock, alpine, and ski-mountaineering), to further her guiding career around the world. Not too many men or women guides have that to brag about. —Vanessa Pierce (photo by Heather Erson)