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December 7, 2023 72 mins

As the face of the Utah Avalanche Center, Craig Gordon’s roots run deep in all things snow safety, powder skiing, and the Utah backcountry skiing community. From his time ski patrolling at Brighton to presenting snow safety to high school auditoriums, Craig has dedicated his life to spreading snow safety knowledge.  

Nils uses his own backcountry riding experience to probe Craig about how exactly the Utah Avalanche Center came to be what it is today. These two also cover some fascinating insights about the historic 2022–2023 snow year, and even dive into the 2023–2024 snowfall projection.  

 Watch our Avalanche Safety video

Chapter Timestamps:   

0:00 – Intro 
2:33 – Moving From New Jersey To Utah 
5:50 – Ski Patrolling 
7:37 – Avalanche Forecasting Initiation 
15:42 – The Utah Snow Safety Community 
23:43 – Getting Involved With UAC 
30:28 – Transitioning To Education 
36:57 – Partnering With Backcountry.com & TGR 
39:13 – The First Education Classes 
46:13 – Evolution Of The Curriculum 
57:09 – Greater UAC Community 
1:01:17 – The 2022–2023 Winter 
1:06:06 – Craig's 2024 Forecast 
1:08:53 – Outro 

Check out the featured products here:  

 Avalanche Safety Gear

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What makes Backcountry the best place to gear up? One-on-one Gearhead expertise. The greatest selection of outdoor gear, apparel, and accessories out there. And the tools to elevate your entire outdoor experience, from training smarter and sending harder to toasting at après. Harnessing the insights of our Gearhead® Experts, we also build our own products for ski, camp, MTB, fly fish, and more pursuits, including exclusive collabs with industry leaders. Backcountry is the place to Venture Beyond.

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