Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Chugach Mountains are located in southern Alaska and form the northernmost range in the Pacific Coast Ranges of western North America. The range extends from the Knik and Turnagain Arms of Cook Inlet on the west to Bering Glacier and the Tana River on the east.
Mount Marcus Baker is the highest point in the Chugach Mountains, rising to 13,094 feet. The range's average elevation is 4,006 feet, so most of its summits are considerably lower.
The Chugach Mountains sit directly along the Gulf of Alaska, where moist Pacific air is forced up against the range. This position produces an annual average snowfall of over 1,500 centimeters, which is more than anywhere else in the world.
Chugach comes from Chugach Sugpiaq Cuungaaciiq, the name of the Alaska Native people who inhabited the Kenai Peninsula and Prince William Sound. The Chugach are an Alutiiq people who speak the Chugach dialect of the Alutiiq language; United States Army Captain William R. Abercrombie applied the name to the mountains in 1898.
The Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel runs beneath Maynard Mountain on the Portage Glacier Highway and carries both railroad and automobile traffic. It connects Portage Lake on one side of the mountain with the city of Whittier on Prince William Sound on the other.
A 300-foot five-pointed star made of around 350 light globes sits at approximately the 4,000-foot level on Mount Gordon Lyon, facing Anchorage. Established around 1960, it is lit from Thanksgiving to Christmas Day and also on September 11th; maintenance is handled by the US Air Force's Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.