Avalanche
Industry News
The Utah Avalanche Center (UAC) is losing its most recognizable and energetic public figure. Craig Gordon, known throughout the ski community for his distinctive top knot, surfer-infused vocabulary, and boundless enthusiasm, retired from full-time forecasting this spring. His departure concludes a 27-year tenure that fundamentally modernized winter safety education.
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Originally from New Jersey, Gordon arrived in the state in 1984 under the pretense of attending college, but quickly pivoted to a full-time mountain lifestyle, according to reporting by The Salt Lake Tribune. He spent a decade working on the ski patrol at Brighton Resort, where he honed his knowledge of winter terrain and eventually became the resort’s first designated avalanche forecaster. He joined the UAC in the late 1990s, initially overseeing data collection and safety forecasts for the remote Uinta and Manti-La Sal mountain ranges.
Gordon’s career trajectory shifted following a devastating post-Christmas avalanche in 2003 near Sundance Resort that claimed the lives of three young backcountry users. Recognizing that traditional, academic safety lectures were failing to resonate with younger skiers and snowboarders, Gordon partnered with then-director Bruce Tremper to develop the “Know Before You Go” awareness program. Designed to be fast-paced, edgy, and non-judgmental, the framework focused on teaching teenagers how to safely manage risk rather than telling them to stay out of the mountains entirely.
The initiative quickly became a global benchmark. Today, the program is utilized in 44 countries and has been translated into 11 languages, contributing to a stable fatality rate despite a massive surge in backcountry participation over the last two decades, The Salt Lake Tribune reports.
In addition to classroom education, Gordon was a pioneer in using modern multimedia to convey immediate mountain risks. In 2012, after triggering a massive, 1,200-foot-wide slide in the Uintas, he and a colleague used a GoPro camera to film an on-site, real-time dissection of the collapsed snow layers. The video went viral internationally, reshaping how modern avalanche centers utilize social media and news broadcasts to deliver digestible, urgent safety information to the public.
While Gordon has retired from his daily forecasting duties, he remains committed to snow safety. He will serve as a director and consultant for the Bryce and Ronnie Athlete Snow Safety Foundation and plans to keep up his personal milestone of skiing during every calendar month of the year, The Salt Lake Tribune reports.
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