Page 12 - 2003/04 AMA Winter

A brief personal account of a visit made to the Chugach Mountains of Alaska by a team from Malvern College CCF in July/August 2003. Lt.Roger S D Smith (RATO Malvern College CCF)
“Just remember that 24/7 I'll be on hand to offer you assistance...see you on 7 August - weather permitting!" were Mike Meekins' final words as he prepared to taxi his Tiger Cub plane down the outwash gravel air-strip beside the Matanuska
glacier.
He then flew off and left us to our own devices for ten days.
The location was stunning - we had just been individually flown in by ‘Bush plane’ to the remote Scandinavian Peaks in the western Chugach Mountains of Alaska. “We", by the way, were a party of eight cadets and three Officers from Malvern College CCF whose objective was to carry out ten days of alpine moun­ taineering in this wilderness mountain environment. The
true climbing potential of the area was unknown since there is no published guide book to the area - merely maps, information gleaned
by word of mouth, emails,
the internet and entries in the Mountaineering Club of Alaska’s Scandinavian Hut log book. But there's a catch! Access to this invalu­ able resource is only possible
if you’ve slogged up all 700ft of “Dog Bone Hill” from the air-strip to the A-framed hut perched high on tundra veg­ etation close to the lateral moraine of the Scandinavian Glacier.
For company we had an abundance of spectacular views of mountains and glaciers, Ground Squirrels galore, Snow Buntings, Dali Sheep and evidence -but no sightings- of Bears. Mind you we’d already had our Bear encounter at our
Ice climbing
The Team.
ID ARMY MOUHTAIHUR
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