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Juneau Mountain Rescue posted on Facebook shortly after 11 a.m Monday that another helicopter team is headed out to search for the missing climbers.
The search continues for two missing climbers who did not return from their ascent last week of the Mendenhall Towers.
Winter weather has made it difficult for rescuers to search for Ryan Johnson of Juneau and Marc-Andre Leclerc of British Columbia on the Juneau Icefield. They were due back last Wednesday, the same day a snow storm hit Juneau.
Johnson and Leclerc were dropped off March 4 near the towers and were due to return three days later via the West Glacier Trail.
Both are experienced climbers but neither carried a satellite phone or emergency beacon with them for the trip.
Family and friends last heard from them March 5.
The Alaska State Troopers were notified Wednesday when the pair did not arrive.
Searchers located some of their gear on the ice field, but poor weather prevented search efforts Saturday.
Troopers reported that the Alaska Army National Guard was able to launch a helicopter Sunday from Juneau with members of Juneau Mountain Rescue on board during a weather window.
The helicopter searched the south face of the towers, but did not locate any additional clues.
In a Facebook post Sunday, Juneau Mountain Rescue said they would resume the search at the first available window Monday.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified where the Mendenhall Towers are located. It’s the Juneau Icefield, not the Mendenhall Ice Field.
It’s back to the drawing board to find a mascot for Juneau’s combined high school sports teams.
Students decided Saturday that Thunder Bears, which students across the district chose last month, would need to be reevaluated after an alternative meaning was discovered online.
Nine student representatives from Thunder Mountain and Juneau-Douglas high schools spent their Saturday morning listening to testimony from members of the community at the state Capitol.
In the end, they voted to send Thunder Bears back to the committee tasked with selecting it.
“I’ve seen some of the effects of the Thunder Bears decision initially already taking place in our school and it’s already been used as a slur,” said Juneau-Douglas sophomore Katie McKenna.
She said she had heard someone using the term offensively in class last week, and was concerned that allowing it to continue as the district mascot would promote racist stereotypes.
Flags were raised after students and district administrators learned of an UrbanDictionary.com entry defining “thunderbear” as a term for people who drink too much, usually of Native American descent. Since Friday, two more thunderbear definitions have been added without negative meanings.
Although the posting is from 2004 and the website is known for assigning raunchy meanings to otherwise harmless words, the school district decided to bring student leaders together to decide whether or not to keep the mascot. They reached out to Juneau Reps. Sam Kito III and Justin Parish, who moderated the meeting.
The majority of testimony and public comment supported keeping the mascot. About 30 community members listened as school board member Emil Mackey testified that he had looked up the other mascots considered besides Thunder Bears on Urban Dictionary.
He pointed out that both “orca” and “senator” have offensive definitions on the website. “Bear” and “falcon,” the district’s existing high school mascots, also have alternative definitions.
Mackey argued that deciding what is or isn’t offensive off of an unmoderated online post could allow anyone to influence future decisions by making up posts online.
“But if we can create what that symbolism is, and we own it and we shape it, we can make it a positive symbol,” Mackey said. “And that, to me, is the more powerful of the two choices.”
Thunder Mountain senior Josh Quinto testified that the Thunder Bear has in fact been an unofficial mascot for the district for several years. He said the districtwide drama, debate and forensics club and the joint high school wrestling team argue over who came up with it.
“It sounded silly, it was a joke but everyone liked the joke and it wasn’t meant to be racist, it was meant to be a fun joke between JD and TM,” Quinto said. “It’s like, ‘Hey, we’re the Thunder Bears. Not the Bears or the Falcons — we’re the Thunder Bears!’”
Quinto said he doesn’t understand the criticism surrounding the name. He is Alaska Native, and has grown up hearing about the racism his grandmother and mother have faced in their lives, but said neither of them consider the term offensive.
“To me this all seems kind of silly. It reminds me of when there was the big joke about the Starbucks cup just being red, being offensive,” Quinto said. “That’s kind of how I’m seeing it as someone who knows how my parents and grandparents faced racism.”
The committee will meet to discuss potential options for a replacement. It’s not yet clear if high school students will be asked to vote on the new mascot again.
Juneau now has a seat at the table in deliberations over whether a Canadian power company can buy the city’s electric utility.
The Regulatory Commission of Alaska ruled Friday that the City and Borough of Juneau will be allowed to intervene as a party to the negotiations between Hydro One and Alaska Electric Light and Power’s parent company, Avista. According to the order, two members of the five-person commission dissented.
Juneau Assembly member Jesse Kiehl said being a part of the discussion will help protect residents from unreasonable rate hikes in the future.
“By intervening, the City and Borough of Juneau is a full party to the proceedings of the RCA,” Kiehl said. “So we really have the opportunity to present evidence and make arguments and participate at a full level.”
The RCA’s decision to approve or deny the acquisition of Avista by Ontario-based Hydro One is due in late May. That means the city’s attorneys will have to work quickly.
“I know the attorneys are aware of that and in fact when the RCA granted the city it’s intervention, they did that based on our assurance that we’re not going to slow things down,” Kiehl said.
The Juneau Assembly appropriated up to $75,000 for legal costs in February. The acquisition has aroused considerable interest in Juneau, with more than 100 community members attending a public meeting with state regulators last month.
A prehearing conference is scheduled for Thursday at the RCA headquarters in Anchorage.
Juneau students and school administrators will meet with local legislators Saturday to discuss concerns surrounding the district’s new mascot, the Thunder Bears.
Juneau students chose “Thunder Bears” in February as the new mascot for the district’s combined football team. The name combined aspects of both the Juneau-Douglas High School Crimson Bears and the Thunder Mountain Falcons. The district said at the time it would be the mascot for all district-wide teams going forward.
Googling the name brings up an Urban Dictionary definition that describes “thunderbear” as a nickname for someone who goes on drunken tirades. It says it is often attributed to people of Native American descent. That definition was posted in 2004.
Students, staff and community members became concerned shortly after the vote when the definition was discovered online.
Reps. Justin Parish and Sam Kito III will meet with Superintendent Mark Miller and student representatives from all district high schools to discuss whether to keep the new mascot or choose another.
The public meeting will be held in room 519 of the Alaska State Capitol Building from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday.
The Juneau School Board is facing tough decisions over what to cut amid uncertainty at the state level.
School officials are developing a budget around increased state funding — knowing it may mean making cuts later on.
Cuts proposed at Tuesday’s board meeting ranged from middle school enrollment in a national college readiness program to nurses and health aides.
The school district must send its budget to the Juneau Assembly by the end of the month, long before the Alaska Legislature is likely to finalize the state budget and education funding.
Gov. Bill Walker’s proposed education budget maintains the current base student allocation of $5,930, which is how much the state sends school districts per typical student.
House Bill 339 proposes raising that by $100, which would mean an extra $1 million for Juneau schools. The bill, sponsored by Anchorage Democrat Les Gara, is in committee.
The school board will review the full budget for next school year at next Tuesday’s meeting.
