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Craig Gordon on Snow Family

One of many avalanches on a tricky, early April weak layer. ◙ Liam McGee

“I’ll do a quad shot of espresso, please,” says Craig Gordon. The legendary Utah Avalanche Center forecaster’s coffee order doesn’t give any credence to the fact that it’s 4 p.m. While we wait for our coffee, Craig offers greetings to practically every person who walks by. I get the feeling he knows every single person in the coffee shop. Or maybe everyone in the Salt Lake Valley at this point.

He’s procured us a table, already resplendent with two laptops and now joined by his quad shot of espresso, which he jokes is required for a larger-than-life personality. I sit, and the interview is immediately turned on me. We talk skiing and why I moved to Utah before inevitably diving into the snowpack, narrowing in on an early April storm with more than a dozen catch and carries, which we both were witnesses to. Inside half an hour, I learn more than I have in years of avalanche education: greenhousing, temperature gradients, spring storm tactics and so much more. I also learn where the good skiing still is in mid-June (hint: high elevation, and you have to walk far to get there), because obviously, Craig is still farming turns for as long as possible.

Our coffee interview turns into a dynamic, two-hour-long conversation that covers the story I’m working on, life lessons, snow science, the future and so much more.

The barista wiping down tables eventually pushes us out the door. I promise to continue the conversation down the line, and maybe go skiing in the Uintas next winter. And regardless of the details, we’re both part of the same snow family, as Craig would say, which simply means we’re family. And that’s the whole point. (P.S. subscribe to see the full story with Craig this winter).

—Liam

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