Black Rapids Training Site

A half-dozen soldiers from Uzbekistan spent five days last month training with their American counterparts at the Army’s Northern Warfare Training Center at Black Rapids. The two-way training was intended to enable the soldiers to exchange ideas about military mountaineering – and to help build relations with the Central Asian nation.

A state lawmaker from Healy is trying a new pitch for an old idea to build power lines from the Mat-Su to Glennallen and on around the eastern Interior road system. Rep. Dave Talerico says the Road Belt Electrical Transmission Line is needed to provide a more secure supply of electricity for the region’s growing military installations.

A binational meeting of military minds …

Ten high-level U.S. and Canadian commissioned and noncommissioned officers toured the Army’s Black Rapids Training Site Tuesday. The event was part of an ongoing series of meetings intended to enable commanders of the two militaries to operate jointly in the far north.

The survivor of the Dec. 6 avalanche at Rainbow Ridge returned to the site in the Eastern Alaska Range last week to recover the bodies of his friend and dog. Michael Hopper says he had to go, because Alaska State Troopers had ruled out a recovery mission until the danger of avalanche in the area subsided. That could’ve taken months.

Alaska State Troopers say a man was killed and his companion was injured when they were buried in an avalanche Saturday evening while skiing near Isabel Pass.