Mountaineering Club of Alaska. The club saw an increase in membership during the past year; over 200 members are now listed. An active climbing and hiking schedule was maintained throughout the year. Trips into the Chugach Mountains, the Alaska, Talkeetna, and Kenai Ranges made up the majority of activities. Members helped propose and establish the recently created 500,000-acre Chugach State Park, a mountain playground just east of Anchorage which has been familiar to MCA’ers for some time. The club conducted a winter mountaineering school, a beginning and an intermediate-advanced rock school, and a glacier school during the past year. Each school was preceded by evening seminars, and the combined indoor-outdoor programs were well attended and most successful. Club members utilized the long Alaskan summer days hiking and climbing numerous mountains in the Chugach and Talkeetna Mountains. Some of the more notable ascents were: Alabaster (8065 feet)in the northwest Chugach, a first ascent; Mount Dimon (7202 feet), another first in the Valdez area soloed by Charles Kibler; and Lava Peak (6620 feet) in the Talkeetna Mountains soloed by Grace Hoeman. Other notable ascents were: Mount Marcus Baker (13,176.feet) in the Chugach Range and in the Talkeetnas, Montana Peak (6950 feet), Granite Peak (6702 feet). The past year saw two MCA’ers on Mount McKinley: Randy Jenner joined a successful “Mountain Travel” West Buttress Expedition, while Grace Hoeman organized and led the successful all-female expedition, known at the “Denali Damsels.” Two MCA’ers and three Nordic Ski Club members skied the Eklutna-Girdwood Traverse in the spring using the club’s hut system along the way. It is hoped that this trip will become an annual spring event. The annual Flattop sleep-ins, overnight campouts during the longest and shortest days of the year, were well attended. During 1970 members have been seen trekking in Nepal, travelling to New Zealand, climbing Mount Rainier on New Year’s Day, climbing and hiking in the “Lower 48” and Europe, as well as having another active year in the Land of the Midnight Sun — Alaska. Other-expeditions and notable ascents in which club members participated are written up elsewhere in this Journal.

Steven W. Hackett, President