The Daily Alaska empire., 1948-09-28
EXPEDITION OFF ICE GAP
 IN BLIZZARD
P drtY Returns to Juneau After Reconnaissance Work on Glaciers

!: Coming from tlinding blizzard on the Juneau ice cap into 5almy ! fall weather was a real pleasure for six men of a geological expedi- tion who came in Sunday after three weeks in. the glacier area above Taku
 The expedition, headed by May nard Malcom Miller, geologist and glaciologist, and William Latady, metsorologist and glaciologist, broke camp Saturday in 45 to 50 mile an-hour blizzard at 4,250 feet The men ran into difficulties when the extreme weather slowed their hike out and they were late in reaching Twin Glacier Lake, point at which they were to meet a toat sent from Taku Lodge. Two of the party succeeded in getting to the lake shortly before dark in time to make contact with the Taku party, only to make a itreacherous trip. down the rapids of Twin Glacier river to Taku river before reaching Taku Lodge. 1, We srant full hour" Latady related, motoring around the lake dodeing ice floes in pitch dark looking for the river outlet. We still don't know why our boat didn't hit berg and sink. On our way down river we got out in hip-high ] ice water to guiGe the boat through the rapids"
 Camp On Ledge
 Miller spent the same night oamped on a narrow ledge in a driving rain storm, sharing two- man tent with three other members iof the expedition. Slowed down by heavy packs and Lad weather the
 group was unable to get to the lake
 for tEe toat pick up and camped | out when stopped by nightfall at
 300 feet above the lake.
 "One of the biggest thrills of the whole trip was seeing an Alaska
 Coastal plane come winging in to land on Tw-n Glacier Lake the next morning to pick us up and fly
 us to Taku Lodge Lowell Cham
 herlain, President of the Harvard
 Mountaineering club and member of the group, said.
 Beginning Phase
 The expedition just completed is
 the beginning phase of one of two first major attempts to study ice masses at high level on the North American continent, Miller said The other survey, called Project iSnoW Cornice, was made earlier in the year in the St. Elias Range north
 east of Yakutat, led by Col. Walter ] A. Wood under the auspices of the
 Arctic Institute of North America.
 Main objective of the Juneau ice
 cap exploration was to make a reconnaissance of the area and to set up equipment to determine what i is happening meteorogically and
 geologically in the vast reaches of
 snow and ice,' according to Miller
 Next summers expedition will have
 an opportunity to check equipment set up by this expedition and to go on from there in the long range project that is in the making" Tcp Ski Area
 Important phase of the trip was an investigation for Pan American
 Airlines of summer ski area at
 high attitudes.
 We found an. area with definite possibilities for ski recreation Mill Ter said. "A ski bowl on the upper Twin Glacier at 4.200 feet has smooth slopes of all degrees of diff ficulty with miles of clear area and good snow at this time of the year, the maximum period of melting for
 the summer
 The area, dubbed Harvard Basin by the party, could he reached in a
 days hike from Taku Lodge, if a trail were constructed up the ridge between the Twin Glaciers, Miller